


Six Degrees of an Embrace

by BlindRider



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 05:04:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 43,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21452467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlindRider/pseuds/BlindRider
Summary: Rex was never quite familiar with the act of an embrace. Luckily for him, he has a certain Togrutan warrior ready to assist at anytime.
Relationships: Ahsoka Tano & Clones, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 & CT-7567 | Rex, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 35
Kudos: 217





	1. Unfamiliar, yet Gentle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello! The name's as mentioned above! I'm new to the Clone Wars Fic scene but have been an avid watcher since the beginning :D
> 
> So here's a bit of Rexsoka that I've got pent up for some years now, I've only decided to start now cuz of reasons :P
> 
> I plan to have to have this as a six parter but who knows what the future may hold ;) and I plan to have most of the known characters to be alive throughout the entire thing (Echo, Fives, and all the good stuff) cuz my biggest wish is for them to still be alive (I know Echo is, but you get what I mean)
> 
> Every fav, follow, and reviews are most certainly welcomed :D
> 
> This first chapter is set on the Resolute, right after the battle of Christophsis!
> 
> With all that said, may you all enjoy!

"With that said, finish your tasks, and do what you need to prepare for the landing. Dismissed!"

The Torrent company captain held his stance as his orders were met with a chorus of the usual "Sir, yes Sir!" before seeing the men disband and go off to their various activities.

Christophsis has been quite a… unique battle as he could so lightly put it.

A series of back and forth advantages to either sides. With them initially holding the onus with the cannons, and then the Separatists with the shield generator.

General Skywalker's incredibly insane yet effective tactics, one that he is still trying to catch up to as he recognizes that it'll be a common thing in the future.

And last but not least, the General's new Padawan. One that he initially denied of wanting, but he overheard him address the small Togrutan as Padawan earlier when they boarded the gunship, so something must have changed.

His thoughts were then interrupted by a call "Oi Rex!"

He turned to the source of the call to find Denal, one his only Sergeant Major marching over to him.

"Something you need _Sarge_?" the Captain purposely applying more pressure on his last word to remind the Sergeant of protocol, to which Denal notices.

"Ah yes" Denal almost bashfully replied "Sorry Captain, force of habit"

Habit it was, Denal had been a shiny that Rex kept a close eye on, seeing as Commander Colt viewed that the trooper had excellent potential as noted in his assignment form given to him. Ever since the two had become good friends and kept tabs on each other, making his habit understandable.

"It's alright Denal, you needed something?" the Captain continued his question, with Denal remembering his inquiry.

"Uh yeah, me and the Sarges of the other squads were just wondering who'd be our CO for the next mission" he asked.

Rex's eyebrows quirked in slight confusion "I thought Ward is the Lieutenant in charge?"

Denal's eyes dimmed "He didn't make the battle Sir" he relayed with a bit of sorrow in his voice.

"Oh, I see" Rex replied with a sombre tone. He hadn't had the time to review the casualties with the chain of missions that were occurring "Who's his second-in-command?"

"It was Thyrp sir" Denal replied quickly.

"How about him?"

"Also dead, Sir"

"Oh" Rex replied with a grim finality, mentally cursing himself for once again not checking the casualties sooner.

He then noted the Sergeants confused expression, to which he then realizes that it is a perfect opportunity to put his good friend to the test.

"How about you then?" he firmly suggests.

Denal's head immediately perked up "Uuhh, Sir?"

Rex chuckled at his expression "You heard me, how about it?"

"Me? Lieutenant?" Denal struggling to form his sentence "You kidding me Re- I mean, uh, Captain?"

"Why not?" the Captain said with a smile while crossing his arms "You've got the makings of a good one, besides that, I'd need one for Teth" he set his form and tone a bit more firmly "So, are you up for it?"

Denal immediately formalized his stance and got his head up "It would be an honor Sir!"

"Alright then Sarge" Rex then lighten his stance up "Congratulations on your promotion. Don't take this for granted son"

Denal had a beaming smile before Rex continues "After this you better get to your squad, pick out another Sarge. Notify the other Sergeants of the new platoon leadership. Try to get it sorted before we go out of hyperspace, you got that?"

"Sir yes Sir!" he proclaimed, before softening his stance "Thanks Rex, you won't regret this"

"I know I won't" the Captain replies, placing a hand on the newly promoted clone's shoulder "Just keep at what I've taught you and-"

His statements were then cut off by the blinking of his commlink, to which he immediately retracted his hand to talk to.

"Rex here"

The familiar voice of Anakin Skywalker sounds out through the device "Skywalker here, sorry to interrupt, you busy?"

Another unique quality of the new General, most of the others would just up and ordered him without asking. Skywalker on the other hand, would never forget to ask when they were in downtime.

"Not at all, need something General?"

He hears the Jedi sighing, seemingly almost exasperated "Have you seen Ahsoka anywhere, looks like she ran off again"

Rex shot a quick inquiring look to Denal, who only shrugged in response.

"Can't say I have General, you need assistance?"

"Huh, might as well" Anakin said "If you see her, tell her that I'm at the bridge, I'm going to need her here for briefing"

"I'll be sure to do that General" Rex acknowledged.

"You know what, just in case" Anakin continued "Why don't you make sure that she gets here? She seems to listen to you more than she does listen to me"

Rex chuckled internally at his General's quip, whilst noticing Denal's amused expression.

"Right away General, I'll keep you posted"

"Alright, thanks Rex. Skywalker out." And with that, the commlink ended its signal. Rex moved his hand down while Denal gave him a funny look.

"Being sent on a Jakrab hunt ey Captain?"

"More like a Padawan hunt" he shot back, scanning his surroundings for any signs of the teenager "Any idea where she is?"

"Nah not a clue" Denal answered, although his head was wondering elsewhere "Since when did the General decided to get a Padawan? I thought you said that he was never even considering on getting one"

"Well that's what he told me" he gave a scratch of his head to further implicate his confusion, while also having his memories flashback to just about a week ago.

_It had been the walk back to the gunship in Arantara where he was knocked unconscious, surprising him with the fact that the good General had return to get him. They were having a little conversation when Anakin's holopad lit up, revealing the familiar shape of Obi-Wan Kenobi._

"_Anakin are you- Rex? Is everything okay down there?" the worried Jedi asked._

"_We're all fine down here Master" Anakin replied with a chuckle, repositioning Rex's arm to give him better support on his shoulders "Rex just took a bit of a knock, other than that all is clear"_

_Obi-Wan just gave him a silent look before Anakin cuts back in._

"_So… You need help or something? Didn't just contact for no reason did ya?"_

_Obi-Wan feigned an offended expression "What? Can't a Master check on his Padawan every once in a while, just to see how he's doing?"_

"_Ex-Padawan" Anakin interjects with a mock annoyed expression "I'm a Knight now, remember?"_

"_Yes yes… whatever you say, and speaking of Padawans, I'm actually considering on taking another one, what do you think?"_

_Anakin just gave his master an incredulous look "At this time of the war? Really Master?" following with a sigh "Well whatever you say then. Hey, maybe this time you'll find someone who actually enjoys listening to your three hour- long lectures about protocol!"_

_Rex had a bit of a chuckle alongside his General's, but he stopped as soon as he noticed the other General's unamused look._

"_Haha very funny Anakin" Obi-Wan then proceeded to look at Rex "Captain, if your good General here ever gets out of hand, feel free to reprimand him in any way you see fit. I'd be there to excuse you"_

_He wasn't sure of what to reply, but with the look that Anakin was giving him, he decided to come up with the safest answer, at least, for his benefits it was._

"_I make no promises Sir"_

_Anakin gave the Captain a thumbs up while giving his old Master a wry smile, to which Obi-Wan could only sigh in resignation._

"_Anakin please consider in NOT spreading your… exuberance to the rest of the men. I have enough trouble in dealing with one of you, no need another one hundred and forty-four men having the same mindset as you do"_

_And with that, the projection then fades away, with Anakin putting it back to his belt._

"_That cranky old man, can't believe he's taking another Padawan in these days. May the Force help the unfortunate soul that they end up sending to him"_

_They continued walking for a bit, before Rex decided to bring up the Padawan topic "What about you Sir?"_

"_Hm?" Anakin perked up to his Captain "What about me?"_

"_You're not considering taking one of those Padawans thingy Sir?"_

"_Me!? Naah…" the Jedi laughed at the question "Probably never, a Padawan would really just slow me down"_

_The Captain murmured a hum understanding, before finally letting the silence come back in and focus on walking back to the gunship. Not knowing that his question would soon be brought up in a quick turn of events._

Rex smiled at the memory, before being interrupted by a light "Rex!"

He looked forward to see the Togrutan bounding over from a distance, slipping a quick "Speak of the devil" to Denal, who chuckled silently before straightening up to regulations, Ahsoka however, was having none of it.

"Um, as you were, uhhh" Ahsoka apologetically waved not knowing his name, to which by habit, Denal immediately perked up and replied.

"Clone Lieutenant designation CT-4373 Commander Tano!"

He didn't notice the silence, until he looked back at his Commander, who had a pretty confused face, causing Denal to think that he had made a mistake, in pronouncing his own designation no less, but the Togrutan assured him otherwise.

"Umm, not that exactly" she started "I meant like, do you have a name? Like Rex here?"

_Ooh_. Was his internal monologue, he gave Rex a quick inquisitive look, in which all he got was a smirk and a slight nod.

_That's strange. _He remarked to himself, but then realizing that this is a Padawan who's learning under General Skywalker, who always tried to remember every trooper by name. Albeit it's only been some hours, but it's no surprise that a few of the General's habits had bled into the student.

"Oh pardon me Commander, the name's Denal" he replied with finality.

"Ah, nice to meet you Denal" Ahsoka said while gesturing towards the two clones "Were you two busy? I can always come back later?"

Rex decided to step in "Not at all, I just finished promoting Denal here to Lieutenant" he gestured to Denal who showed a small smile "He was just getting back to his platoon to inform them of the change"

Ahsoka perked up in hearing the trooper's newest accomplishment, seeming genuinely happy for him.

"Really!? Wow congratulations then Denal! Oh and please, don't let me hold you up if you have matters to attend to"

"R-right" Denal then straightens his pose again "If you'd excuse me Commander, Sir" giving a brief salute to both COs before bounding back towards his waiting brothers.

The pair watched as he marches away, before Rex turns his attention back to Ahsoka.

"The General's looking for you, kid. He needs you in the bridge"

Ahsoka immediately let out a very audible groan "Really? But I had some questions that I wanted to ask you"

"Well then, Commander" he gestured to the door, allowing to fall in step with him "You can ask me on the way there"

"You're escorting me?" she complained whilst placing her hands on her hips "What, he thinks I'm gonna run off again?"

"Well, are you?"

She gave the Captain a half glare, and then looks away from him.

"Probably"

A small chuckle caught her attention as the Captain reemphasizes his gesture to escort her.

"Ugh fine! But it's only cause you had a fair point"

"Whatever you say kid"

He was about to start his walk when she stopped him once again.

"By the way, did I use it correctly?"

Rex's brows furrowed "Used what correctly Sir?"

"That as you were thing, did I use it correctly?"

"Oh" remembering that the Padawan is just familiarizing herself with the standard protocols "That was just fine kid"

The two then began their walk towards the bridge, at first accompanied by a comfortable silence between the two. Occasionally nodding and greeting acknowledging passing officers and troopers, which Rex noticed seemed to be all a bit weird for the militarily inexperienced Padawan.

His point was proven when she finally broke the silence.

"Do they always have to do that?"

"Always do what exactly Sir?"

"You know…" she waved at the myriad of officers and troopers who had passed them "All that greeting and what not, does it not annoy you all that you have to do it every time one of us just walks by?"

The Captain can't help but be amused that that particular aspect of military command was the one that had bugged her, prompting him to delve deeper into her questionings.

"Was this one of the questions that you wanted to ask me Commander?"

"Well… sort of," she replied with a sigh "It was kind of improvisatory, just cause it took me forever to get from my quarters all the way to the hangar with me trying to answer all their "commanders" and "Sirs" all the time"

Her statement took Rex by surprise "All of them?"

She nodded, not quite understanding his astonishment.

"You replied to every single greeting?"

Her eyebrows quirked up "Was I not supposed to?"

"Uhm, well…" Rex's pace slows as he was thinking of an answer "Not exactly… but most of the time, a nod would really suffice just as well"

"A nod!?" her expressions turn horrified, almost making Rex think that he had said the wrong thing "Wouldn't that just be rude!?"

"Uhh" At this point, the experienced Captain had run out of explainable replies to the abashed Togrutan. He then began explaining the case from his own personal view.

"We all kind of get used to it kid" he pauses, observing her expressions to see that it clearly wasn't enough of a reason "Even the General does it time-to-time"

Ahsoka sighed at his statement "Yeah, but at least Skyguy bothered remembering and telling me all your names" she gave him an assumptive look "But all the Generals do that don't they? Referring to you all by names?"

Rex strangely felt guilt slowly creeping in him as he stayed silent to her statement, all while seeing her grin slowly but surely fades away until she came to her own horrid realization.

"They don't!?"

"Well to be fair Commander-"

"And that too!" she pointed a finger to him, with Rex backing his head a bit, feeling the pressure of her pointing "Do you always have to call me Commander?"

"The protocol states that-"

"To hell with protocol Rex!" she made him halt to further focus her point "Do _you _think that it's fair for you and your brothers to be treated this way?"

For once in his highly situational life, Rex wasn't exactly sure what to say.

"I can't really say for sure Comm-"

Her glare prevented him from continuing his sentence, before he corrected it.

"Uh, I mean, can't say for sure, kid"

She kept her glare on him for a few more seconds, before exhaling a breath that even she didn't realize that she was keeping, and then proceeded to continue her walk, this time, at a slower pace.

Rex immediately fell in step with her, barely recovering from the slight outburst that the teenager had. Their walk continued with a silence that was somewhat constrictive, at least until she spoke up again, much to the relieve of the Captain.

"Is that why Denal gave me his designation number instead of his name?"

He winced at the memory, he forgot that he'd always enforced his friend to keep regs up when in the presence of commanding officer, he failed to realized how far his friend might go up on the regs on occasion.

"Yes"

"So, it's really only me and Master Skywalker who does it regularly?"

"Well not exactly" Rex began finding his ground again "Some of the other Generals try their best. General Kenobi in my experience, has really tried to keep up with General Skywalker's habit, at least Cody also says so"

"Cody?" she interjects for a bit "His legion Commander?"

He nodded in answer "Most of the other Generals try their best to their credit kid. At least I've never worked with those who refer to us by our numbers"

"Your _numbers_?"

He cringed, almost regretting on saying that, fully expecting another outburst from her, but only find her sighing to herself.

"I can't understand that"

"Sorry Sir?"

"I just can't!" placing one of her hand on her forehead, clearly being perturbed by the fact that's being laid in front of her "It's just, all of them are way more experienced than I am in the Force, but even I can tell the difference between all of you!"

She noticed his eyebrows raised somewhat inquisitively to her statement, she looked at him in the eyes to offer him to assurance.

"Yes, trust me, I can"

"Not that I doubt you kid" he states earnestly "I know that Force is nothing up my alley, but in all fairness, we are clones. We were bred from a single man's genetic code, and you can differentiate all of us?"

"Of course I can! You may physically look similar, but you all occupy the Force differently, or at least, that's what Master Yoda said"

Seeing that Rex was still questioning her statement, she decided to give him some evidence.

"Here, stop for a bit" they stopped right before a corner comes in, she stayed still for a bit, and pointed towards the corner. "I can tell you that Boost is coming up from that corner any second now"

They waited for a few seconds, and lo-and-behold the clone pilot rounded the corner and immediately took notice of the two COs.

"Sir!" he claims while saluting.

"Heading to the hangar Boost?" she replied while giving a smug grin to the Captain.

"Right you are Commander" he gave her an air fist action movement "Gotta make sure those ships are primed and ready to beat some clankers off the sky"

"That so? Alright then, don't want to be holding you up, don't we Captain?"

"Uhh, right" was all he could procure form being proven so wrong.

"I'll get right to it Commander" giving a final salute to the Togrutan and the Captain.

He waited until Boost rounded the corner before he concedes.

"Alright fine, so you can differentiate us"

"Ha, don't doubt me next time Rexster" giving him a sly wink in the process "Although in fairness, that was a bit lucky"

"How so?"

"I wasn't sure whether it was Boost or Torbin. They both have the same fiery sort of blasting off feeling from them, so I had to bet a little bit"

Rex couldn't really say anything. Here he is being confronted on his beliefs, by a teenager who had only been in the warfare for barely half a day, yet he never felt being confronted by someone as sure and as believing as she is, and she wasn't stopping.

He just had to chuckle to himself a little bit, noticing the irony of how he told her that experience outranks everything.

Yet here he is feeling so utterly inexperienced at the matter she had presented.

"Sorry Rex" her apology sounded foreign to him, as he looked at her to see that the Padawan looks somewhat dispirited "I'm just nervous, and all this is really a lot to take in"

The Captain can only nod in understanding. To her credit, she has proven at least to him that even though she's a fourteen-year-old, she's not one to cower behind the youthfulness of her age, and she's really not one to back away from matters of any kind of importance.

"To your credit kid," he gestured to her form "You've exceeded most of our expectations so far. The General practically threw you at me, and so far, you've seemed to be handling his… unique qualities pretty well"

"Still…"

Slowly, the confident and confronting Padawan he saw earlier was replaced by an anxious and abstinent teenager. One whom he has observed as being pressured almost all-to-quickly to endure her new responsibilities in a war that's beginning take its toll.

"This Teth mission, Master warned me that we'd be quite deep within enemy lines, albeit we won't be in a full-blown battlefield, mistakes can still come up from just about anything."

Rex continued his attentive gaze, encouraging her to continue, to which she does.

"I'm scared that somewhere in the mission, I'd mess up, get someone killed, and having to live with that shadow for the rest of my life"

It is the cruel reality of any war. One mistake can lead to your demise, or even worse, the demise of others. Rex alone had found himself in those scenarios, considering the "what ifs" and "I could've" parts of the aftermath, only to realize that it is to no avail.

Something that he'd want to share with the teenager.

"Look, Ahsoka"

The usage of her name certainly brought her full attention on him, enticing the proper reaction that he had wanted out of her.

"I would say with certainty that every soldier, clone or not, would always know the risk of going into battle" he began, carefully arranging his words hastily in his mind to make sure that it doesn't end up creating a misunderstanding of the advice he was trying to bestow.

Ahsoka kept her blue orbs on his brown ones, all while focusing to the new pace that they had slowed to.

"I know that but-"

Her sentence was cut-off by his softly raised hand, preempting her to go back to attentive silence.

"I wasn't finished Commander" his gruff voice starting to sound out a bit more "These men, _our _men, trust those of us within the higher command, with their, individual, life."

She noticed his emphasis on individual, which brought her to recognize his acknowledgement on her will to regard all of them as such.

"They all live their days and battles as if it were their last. But that's not to be discouraging; it is their way of wanting to live their potentially short lives to the fullest, without having any regrets to leave behind, should it come to their fall."

His words once again, cut deep into her young heart, wishing for things to be different.

"I wish they don't have to have that dawning feeling in their heads all the time"

"But that's just it kid, it's not only us" he continues on, gesturing to herself "You have that thought too, don't you?"

The question forced her to reached within the inner depths of her mind, silently wondering on whether or not she had pondered that question after only being in the field for such a short amount of time.

And in all honesty,

She had.

"With where I am now, I can't help but think about it as well"

Rex allowed a small smile of satisfaction to grace his features, finally being able to relay his point.

"Exactly" watching as the Padawan understood his message "You think about it, I think about it, the men thinks about it, _kriff _even the General thinks about it"

An inquisitive eyebrow was raised at the Captain's choice of word, but he was to indulged in his process of enlightening her that he didn't end up noticing, so choose to let it slide, thinking of asking him about it later on.

"So, whether it be a mistake, a trap, a false direction within the strategy, those men will always die believing that they were standing for what they believe in"

He suddenly went on a halt, prompting Ahsoka to realize that they were near the bridge command centre. She spared a glance towards the door, and then back to Rex, still having a shroud of doubt within her mind about the other matter.

"That's good to know" she sighed in somewhat of relieve "But it still bothers me that you and your men are subjected to such ridiculous treatments. I don't even think that I warrant any kind of respect from you guys!"

"Trust me kid" he awkwardly placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, obviously unfamiliar with the situation in hand "You've earned your share of respect from the men just by having that mindset"

He retracted his hand almost immediately to avoid any sort of breach in regs, crossing his arms instead.

"If the men didn't like you, you'd definitely have heard from either me, or the General"

"Not one to mince your words huh Cap?"

Rex gave a slight smirk "Not at all Commander, it's entertaining to see the General finally have someone to trade wits with"

"Oooh, so that's just it huh?" she emulated the stance that the Captain has, finally melting back to her playful self "I'm the new in-flight entertainment?"

A soft chuckle escaped his lips "Take it as our moniker for… appreciation, Commander"

"Appreciation…" she muttered those words as if they held a different meaning, then she locked her eyes on his, as if searching for anything hidden, any trickery or lies.

But all she found was truth, honesty, and sincerity.

One that she was eager to return.

All he saw was a slight blur of orange, before suddenly feeling a light enveloping sensation around his torso.

In a split second, she had wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on her tiptoes, and had rested her chin on his shoulder.

Rex stood frozen, unsure of what to do and how to respond except for a quiet "Uuhh, Sir?"

"Take this as _my _moniker of appreciation, Captain"

He didn't know what it was, but as soon as she gave a final squeeze and gently let go,

He finds himself not wanting _to _let go.

Which is strange, considering he didn't even know what just happened. Just something that is so unfamiliar, yet so gentle.

It felt natural.

His mind finally snaps back as soon as he heard the big door to the bridge open up, with the young Padawan beckoning him to follow suit, forcing him to fumble in his attempt to straighten his stance, eliciting a laugh from the girl, and go back to being the soldier that he is.

The two were then greeted by an energized Anakin Skywalker, who had just finished off speaking with Admiral Yularen.

"There you are Snips; I trust that you didn't give Rex any trouble?"

"Well…" Ahsoka started, slightly nudging the Captain with a playful glint in her eyes "Did I Captain?"

His ears suddenly felt a little hot, with his mouth struggling to form words "Uuh… not at all General"

Anakin however, noticed his Captain's slight unbalance "You sure? You're looking a bit red there Captain"

He mentally forced himself to put his stoic upfront back "Just had a bit of trouble reorganizing Denal's new platoon General, both his Lieutenants didn't make the last battle Sir"

_As if he'd be troubled by that_, was his inner monologue, and fortunately for him, Ahsoka remained shut during their exchange, only sparing him the occasional knowing glance, fully exposing his ploy.

The good General however, completely bought it "Oh, that's unfortunate" his tone laced with regret, but reverting back to neutral in an instant "Extend my congratulations to Denal later on, I'm sure he'll do fine under you"

Rex gave the Jedi a firm nod "Will do, General"

Anakin gave him a nod in reply and immediately turned his attention to Ahsoka "Now Ahsoka, here's some of the things that you should know about Teth"

The rest of the briefing became quite a blur for the Captain, with his thoughts still lingering on what just happened outside the bridge. Still trying to comprehend the unfamiliar feeling of the… gesture? He can call it a gesture can he?

Little did he know that during his own internal debate, a pair of green orbs observed quietly while splitting its attention to the Jedi Knight.

He knew then and there that she would become a Jedi not quite like any of the ones that he's ever met, or ever will.

And his convictions were further cemented when they reunite after safely returning Jabba's son, where she apologized profusely for not being able to help him when he was in need of assistance in Teth, telling him to blame her since it was her suggestion to aid Jabba's son instead of her Master's. Her apologies multiplied when she learned that he and Denal were the only two left before Obi-Wan managed to come in with reinforcements.

Her frantic attempts at forgiveness that he already deemed unnecessary were only met with chuckles from the two other Generals and amused laughter from himself, Denal, and Cody.

Marking the beginning of a relationship that only blossoms from there on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to give me feedback over the characters! I feel like that's something that I still need to improve!
> 
> Apologies for the grammar mistakes, writing throughout the middle of the night certainly didn't help me focus xD
> 
> See ya'll hopefully next chapter!


	2. Warmth and Fulfillment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Peeps! Back here with another chapter! HOWEVER, I'm going to apologize beforehand because this is a freakishly long chapter! 13k words long specifically :P
> 
> I don't know whether it is okay long, or unnecessarily long... But that's what I hope to find out from the feedback on this chapter :)
> 
> As usual, any kind of feedback will be highly appreciated! And thank you to those who has spared their time in reading this :D
> 
> I'm just gonna be here suppressing ma yabba, so...
> 
> ENJOY!

Time seems to fly by, mission after mission was duly completed in the following year after she joined.

The last three months however, he could consider as being somewhat completely lackluster. Since it's been that roughly that amount of time since the Padawan had last undergo a full mission with his company.

It wasn't her to blame as well, not with all the chain events that seems to have been occurring.

Geonosis had become the starting point of it all, when he saw the debris of the droid factory began crumble to the ground, he truly believed, for a second, that the feisty Togrutan had fell. But as soon as he got the order from the General, he held his hope, and was utterly relieved, though he kept it relatively hidden, to see her alive and had escorted her back to the medbay.

Since then, plenty of other separate missions had come, that had further divided their assignments, an interesting one was indeed Saleucami, with Cut thoroughly making him rethink of his idea of family, yet in the end also solidifying it.

He met her after the incident, and she adorned a look that he wished he never would have to see again.

"_What in the world Rex!" _

_ He sharply looked up from his sleeping position, observing her as she stood at the entrance of the medical room. Both Denal and the medical droid also immediately turning their heads towards the door, immediately noticing the tone of that voice. _

_ And boy did she look upset. _

"_This is why I ask not to be rested, I'm off for three days and what? I get news that the good ol' Captain gets himself shot!" _

_ No one dared to say a word as she advanced forward, even the medical droid decided to leave the room after muttering something about "other patients to see". _

_ She marched over to Denal, who was holding a datapad over his chest like a scared child, startled when he suddenly hears, _

"_What. Happened?" _

_ Denal looked at the Commander, then to his Captain, then back to his Commander "Uuhh, Sir?" _

"_Don't you "Sir" me Denal!" she pointed at him with an authoritative finger "What. Happened?!" _

_ Rex had never seen a man looked so lost before, which was understandable seeing that he hadn't old Denal of what happened, and the latter hadn't asked as well. _

"_I-I'm not sure Commander…" Denal waved over to the Captain "The Captain hadn't told me yet" _

_ She looked at him menacingly, and then eyed Rex, and then back to Denal "You weren't there?" _

"_No he wasn't, Commander" she looked back at Rex who had finally decided to shed some light on his earlier situation "I was assigned to General Kenobi, and he personally requested for me, Hardcase, Jesse, and Kix to follow through a scouting mission in Saleucami" _

"_That so?" she replied, eyeing Denal once again, who swiftly added "I was assigned to General Skywalker at the time Commander, so I wouldn't have any involvement is his…predicament" _

_ The look of suspicion was maintained before she relents "Fine. Denal, tell those three to meet me at mess later, I need to make sure that the Captain isn't hiding anything" _

"_Right away Sir!" internally, Denal took the opportunity to skip out of the room, with Rex knowing full well that he'd just left him under the firing cannon. He was going to make sure that he would return the favour later on. _

_ As Denal made his way out, Rex was still looking at the retreating figure of the clone before he began to speak "Look Commander, there's really nothing to-" _

_ His sentence died off when he looked back, to find Ahsoka observing his armor, particularly the part where the bullet had pierced through. Seemingly running her hands over it as if feeling the fade of it through her fingers. _

_ There was a certain look that glazed over her eyes, one that he couldn't place as just simply worried. _

_ Terrified seemed to better fit the bill. _

"_Ahsoka?" _

_ His call managed to break her out of her reverie, she visibly suppressed a shudder and released a shaky breath, lowering her hold on the piece of damaged armor. _

"_That looks way too close for comfort Rex" _

_ Normally, he pried himself for being able to handle close calls. In this case however, he would more than agree with her statement. _

_ It had been too close. _

"_Yeah kid, it probably was" _

_ She eventually placed the armor back to its place, taking a seat next to the Captain's bed. _

"_What happened?" she asked in a much softer tone than before. _

_ Rex decided to spare her most of the details, simply to save his ass from more reprimand. _

"_Commando Droid snipers, shot when I was on the speeder, missed, woke up feeling a kriffing huge amount of pain" _

_ He at least managed to elicit a small chuckle from her "You and I have a very different concept of what a "missed" shot looks like" _

_ Well in his soldier's context, the droid missed his heart which in turn failed to kill him, therefore technically "missing" the target objective. _

_ The droid certainly did hit the target though. _

"_Well it didn't kill me so I would've categorized it as a miss" _

"_Dammit Rex, I know that, it's just-" she cut herself off with a sigh, her frustration seeping out bit by bit "It's just that I could do without the fact that you were out there getting shot and I wasn't there to help or protect you" _

_ The tone she took was full of both regret and fear, one she regularly took when it comes to the safety of the men and, as of recent, him specifically. Yet, he knew better than to do the whole "We were made to get shot at" speech to her again, seeing as it would probably be worse for him to say those words in this situation. So he took the conversation to a different path. _

"_At least now we know that the other men are capable of stepping up. Jesse and Hardcase worked their maneuver properly, Kix as bossy as he is, did a hell of a job in fixing me up" _

_ Ahsoka couldn't help but smile at her Captain's constantly new ways of viewing things "Always enlightening me from a different perspective huh Rex ol' boy?" _

_ Rex kept his tone rather plain, but also somewhat indulging her humor "Just making sure you keep up Commander" _

"_Tell you what though" Rex was slightly startled when he felt her hand on his, initially giving it a light grip "The next time you decided to get shot at, make sure that I'm there to attempt some tactics of aggressive negotiation to the impending bolt coming to strike you, hm?" _

_ He was still distracted by the hand, before he felt her tightening it for a second, bringing his attention to her eyes, which was still glazed in concern. _

"_Promise me Rex?" _

_ There was something about her look that made him almost feel regret at getting shot, when it was clearly out his hands. _

_ It took a while, but he eventually pulled a genuine smile, and replied with a slight grin, "Yeah, I'll promise you that one, Ahsoka" _

Yet as far as promises between friends could go, it still wasn't enough to go beyond the orders of duty. Both from the council, and the military.

The months following just seems to enforce that. He heard the story of the Padawan momentarily losing her lightsabre in a Coruscant underworld op, albeit she didn't lose it, but her Master was enforced to input some sort of a punishment that was induced by the council, which further put her out of frontline action.

The next occasion was on Rex's part. Being assigned in the protection detail for the Duchess of Mandalore, they only had a small conversation and short chorus of good luck with each other before having to depart immediately for the Coronet. Rex couldn't help but wonder what would've happened had Ahsoka been a part of the squad that was checking out the cargos. An extra Jedi for precaution, and maybe Redeye and Mixer would've still been alive.

Ahsoka was then assigned with General Koon, helping out General Skywalker and Windu in Vanqor. Something about bounty hunters being extremely annoying and destructive was all he could extract from her hurried explanation as she had to catch up with General Koon. Once again, debilitating the amount of time that they could have used to catch up with each other.

At this point, his mood in the frontlines wasn't exactly cheery. The Torrent company were mostly tasked alongside the 212th as they usually were, and as pleasant as General Kenobi's demeanour is, it wasn't exactly one that he had been looking forward to working with, not that he would tell the General though as he kept himself professionally operating throughout his assignment. Fives, Echo, and especially Denal had been in the sticking point of the Captain's curt and indifferent responses, Hardcase even attempted to cheer the Captain up, but only ended up receiving a horrid glare that made the rowdy clone relatively silent throughout the rest of the campaign.

Just when he thought that the commanding rank would finally be complete for once, the Jedi Council decided to assign Ahsoka into training a bunch of cadets in the world of Mandalore while Rex and the General further assist the 501st and 212th in separate areas of the galaxy. He caught a look from the Padawan as she looked back on him with a look that was somewhat apologetic of nature, apparently reminding him that she still remembered the promise that she made him give, only to be unintentionally neglecting it herself. He was only able to give her a slow nod, understanding that if she had any other choice, she would've been in the frontlines with them.

Balith, once again, only seem to have brought his hopes up, just for it to crash down at the last minute. He had observed the Padawan and her master walking towards the shuttle that was about to leave Coruscant, he had also seen the Padawan had her eyes perk up, before seeing it gloom back to its resigned state. The General then hurriedly boarded the shuttle with the Commander staying back. As the shuttle took off, the General shouted at his pupil to stay out of trouble, before letting the shuttle door close.

He briefly remembered his short conversation with the General.

"_The Commander got orders Sir?" _

"_Yeah, the council wants her stay back and report her recent activities" Anakin had replied with an amused smile gracing his lips. _

"_Ah, got it" he can only curtly reply, which induced a curious look from Anakin, before the General gave him a teasing smile. _

_ Anakin wasn't inattentive, a bit slow perhaps yes, but he'd make it there. He does notice that the small bundle of Togrutan energy he calls his apprentice brings some major morale boost to the men, the Captain specifically. Which is why it was easy for the Jedi to understand the recent dampening of spirit that the Torrent company had acquired over the last few campaigns, and it seemed to have taken a toll on the good Captain as well. _

"_Relax Captain, as soon as we get this over with, she'll be back in the frontlines with us in no time" giving the Captain's shoulder a good pat before heading towards the shuttle's holo-projector. _

_ Rex stared at the General for a little while, before inaudibly sighing to himself and echoing a slow "Sir yes Sir" _

Balith had been tough, but the Third Legion proved its superiority and eventually managed to garner a good control over the civil war that had exploded the week prior.

Onboard the Resolute, he was off in mess trying to finally get a relaxing meal after days of constant battles as the ship headed back for Coruscant. One hand held his tray of food while the other was holding a datapad that had a report covering Senator Amidala's fray in Alderaan's political situation regarding their refugee centre, which the general had told him to check out for reasons that he couldn't fathom, but when it comes to the Nabooian Senator, nothing ever is.

The report had been going as dull as any political mission report had ever been, before his widened as he reached the part where an assassination attempt by Aurra Sing on the Senator had been foiled by a certain Togrutan Padawan.

_ Padawan Tano received minor blaster burns during the altercation with the bounty hunter, but has been cleared by the Nabooian medics. _

He hadn't finished processing the information when someone linked his arm around his shoulder, jerking the Captain back to his current location.

"Hey there Cap!" he looked up to see Fives, Denal, and Echo each with their trays "What's with the sour look brother, we kicked some butts down there!"

Denal sat himself across the Captain, placing his tray while nodding towards the datapad.

"Checking up on the Commander again aren'tcha Rex?"

Rex barely had time to react before Echo yanked the datapad out of his grasp.

"Let's see here… Aaah, the assassination attempt on the Senator was successfully foiled by… none other than our own Commander!" the three men who just learned of the news let out a semi-whoop, prompting Fives to question the Captain,

"So, what's the sour face all about then brother?"

"Hold on," Denal interjected "There's more here" he scrolled down the report, until he reached a point that he deemed interesting enough to read.

"The Nabooian guards had overseen the capture of Sing, whilst Padawan Tano…" the Lieutenant tapered off before fully grabbing the datapad from Echo's hands while putting it to his face "She got shot!?"

Fives and Echo were immediately snapped off their hubris and focused on the shocked clone "She got what!?"

"Who got shot?"

The four looked over to see Kix and Coric both standing with their own trays.

Rex could only wonder on how unfortunate the Commander's luck is to have two of the most hard-headed medics that the 501st has to have been notified of her injury.

"Let me see that" Kix took the datapad off of Denal, scanning for a bit before muttering off to the Captain "Looks like the Commander will need to get a proper check-up once we land in Coruscant ey Sir?"

Rex only scoffed, knowing where his luck would be taking him.

"Knowing our recent events, she probably won't be in Coruscant when we are Kix"

"But it says so right here Captain, her ship is en-route back to Coruscant"

The Captain looked to the medic to see a mission status.

_ Mission Status – Complete, En-route: Coruscant _

Once again, just when he thinks that luck has decided to return, his commlink went off.

"Rex, Skywalker here, sorry to interrupt your rest, but you're needed here in the bridge as soon as possible"

The other clones simple raised an eyebrow at the sudden command, he shrugs as he gathered his bucket and began walking out of the mess, towards the bridge. All while idly wondering what might've came up that required his immediate attention.

As the bridge door opened, he was immediately alerted by the presence of Skywalker, alongside Cody and General Kenobi, whom he wasn't aware was actually on the ship.

Cody gave him a serious look, before gesturing towards the holo-projector "We've got a situation here"

And that's when he learned of Grievous and Ventress's plan on the attack on Kamino.

Meanwhile, on a ship on the other side of the hyperspace highway, Ahsoka was just keeping herself relaxed and prepared herself to reunite with her Master and her men, and a certain Captain that she had a lot to make up to.

Datapad in hand, she was reading on the report of the Republic involvement in Balith. Making sure that all is well within the ranks of her company.

She was a bit disheartened but also glad that the 501st suffered no casualties, but some other parts of the Third Legion had not been so lucky.

Arriving at the end of the report, she was satisfied to see the mission status.

_ Mission Status – Complete, En-route: Coruscant _

Finally, after some long and intense time away from the company, she could finally rejoin the company that she had missed so much over the past few months, hoping that they'd be as glad to see her as she is to see them.

Placing the datapad down by her bedside, she was about to get some shut eye before an alert sounded out from the datapad, indicating a change from the report she was reading.

She quickly grabbed it and noticed that the mission status had changed.

_ Mission Status – Diverted, Mission Code: D302 _

Tapping on the link, she waited until the datapad loaded up, before realizing that it had only loaded up two lines in a mission briefing.

_ Mission Status: Unknown _

_ Location: Kamino _

The Padawan immediately sat up, with both worry and regret lacing her features.

Realizing that her reunion with the Captain would have to wait.

The defence of Kamino had been a battle that saw clone casualties breach the multitude of hundreds. It had been quite a disarraying compilation of battles, not to mention the loss of Colt and Havoc meant that there were some holes to patch out in the clone's command chain. Luckily for Rex, he and Cody were positive that Echo and Fives would prove to be a valuable asset to the planet's defensive integrity, and the command chain of the ARC Troopers.

As soon as he settled Echo and Fives's promotion to ARC troopers, they shipped up and began their journey back to Coruscant after an inexplicably tiring day of defending their home.

After a relatively quiet trip, Anakin had gathered Rex, Denal, Echo, and Fives during the disembarking of the Resolute, giving out their orders and procedures.

"First off, congratulations Echo and Fives. I'm sure you both will do the rank justice"

"Thanks, General, we won't let you down" Fives replied for the two of them.

"Alright, second things of order" he handed out datapads to his mentioned clones "You two and Denal will be overseeing the unloading of the Resolute, I trust that Denal would be able to fill you in on the procedures"

Fives and Echo looked over to the scoffing Lieutenant who only mischievously remarked "Commandos or not, you both are still listening to me for today"

An audible groan was elicited from the two newly promoted ARCs, with the General giving a small chuckle to the men's behaviour.

"Don't be too hard on 'em Denal. Alright, you three are dismissed, Rex you're with me"

The Captain immediately fell in with the General, walking off towards a nearby Jedi shuttle "We got orders Sir?"

"Sort of, but we're gonna take a quick detour for a bit then I'll brief you on the mission"

"Copy that General"

Rex soon finds out that by "detour", the General had meant that they were going to personally escort Senator Amidala to her departing ship, as a means of catching up and doing his "Council" duties.

He often wonders on whether or not there was something more between the Senator and the General, especially judging by the conversation that they had on the way to the Senator's transport, it seemed rather stupid not to think that there's more to it than simple Council duties.

"Senator Amidala! Master Skywalker!"

Rex's head immediately snaps towards the source of the calls, trying his best to make sure that his ears weren't tricking him.

A voice that he had missed hearing regularly for the past few months.

He looked around to see the Padawan in question, running towards the pair that he was escorting. Mentally cursing the professional distance that he has to maintain between him and the people he was escorting.

Having his helmet on meant that he didn't need to strain his ears much when it comes to listening to what the Padawan had to report to her master and the Senator, informing them of the kidnapping of Chairman Papanoida's daughters and he pretty soon realized that they were about to go separate ways once again.

As much as he wanted the General to press on the fact that Jedi couldn't get involved, he knew that Ahsoka needed to help her friend.

After discussing a short plan that, typically, goes against the orders of the council, he can only watch as she made her way back to her shuttle transport and took off to Force knows where.

Anakin eventually looked back as if realizing that he still had a Captain that was waiting for his orders, he promptly turned his attention to the matter.

"Rex! I almost forgot" the Captain stood at attention at his call, before the Jedi turned back to the Senator "Padme you go on ahead, I'll catch up in a bit"

"Alright, take your time Ani" the Senator had said before entering her shuttle.

He saw the two shared a look beforehand and it took everything is Rex's power to not ask the General over why was she calling him using a nickname, especially since he barely hears anyone refer to the General to his first name other than General Kenobi, but he chose to keep it in him as the General approaches.

"There goes Ahsoka again… Hope she knows what she's doing" the General had muttered, more to himself that is.

Rex could only stare at the general of where her shuttle had gone, before having a bit of a hopeful idea.

"Should me and the men assemble a squad to assist her, General?"

Anakin gave a low chuckle "As reassuring as that would've been Captain, I'm afraid that it wouldn't wise. She's technically on a rogue op and I wouldn't want the council to find out through more sources, so it's best to have her go at it by herself"

The Captain could only give a murmur in understanding, almost visibly deflating from the rejection of the idea.

"That and I have an assignment for and some of the boys. I had planned to have Ahsoka assist you in this one since I won't be able to, but I guess emergencies are unavoidable at times" Anakin gave him a pointing gesture "The Chancellor had notified me that there are some suspected Separatists activities in the planet Carida that needs investigating"

"Carida Sir?" he asked in confusion "That's a barren planet, and it's under Republic control, why would Seppies be there?"

"That's what I want you to find out" the General continued, "I want you to gather a small squad from the company, I'd recommend taking Echo and Fives along, they'd need the experience seeing that they are now ARCs. Get intel as needed, and report back. We'll figure out what to do based on what you find"

"Roger that, General" straightening his pose in affirmative.

Anakin gave him a small smile "Alright, best of luck Captain. Keep me posted"

"Will do General"

And with that, Rex headed off to the Torrent company barracks, arriving in time to see Fives slam Echo's hand to claim victory in their mini arm-wrestling competition. Notably already receiving their kama's and new pauldrons in regards to their new rank. Fives noticed the Captain coming into the barracks, energetically waving him over.

"Oi Rex! Got a mission for us?"

Rex came over and maintained his stoic posture, somewhat wondering how these two could be so different on and off the field.

"As a matter of fact, there is a mission. You two gear up and gather Denal, Coric, Hardcase, and Jesse. Tell em' to gear up as well, then meet me up front in ten"

Before either of the two could respond, the Captain was gone as swiftly as he had come. Echo only gave a shrug towards his brother before standing up to find the requested clones.

Right about ten minutes later, Rex had his squad all prepped and ready. He'd figured that instead of having the usual nine-men squad, it'll be better if he included lesser amount of men due to the ambiguity of the mission in hand. They were all exiting the barracks when Coric decided to pipe up.

"Where we headin this time Captain?"

"Got a supposed recon mission in Carida" the Captain curtly responded as he gestured for them to follow him.

"Supposed?" Echo inquired with noticeable confusion "What'd you mean by supposed?"

Usually, Rex wouldn't have felt bothered by having to explain anything to his men, but his sour mood and the enigmatic nature of the assignment made him a little bit worse for wear.

"General's got intel that Seppie activities have been detected somewhere in the vicinity of an outpost, he assigned me to take a squad and check it out"

"In Carida? That's Republic space Rex, droids may be droids but there's no way that they'll be dumb enough to be hanging about" Fives gave his two cents on the situation.

Rex only gave an exasperated sigh, not wanting to prolong the questions that he already had for the General.

"It's Chancellor's orders Fives."

And with that being stated, the entire squad basically took it as the signal to stop asking questions and go on boarding the transport.

With him walking ahead, Echo took the onus to whisper a quiet remark to Fives "What's gotten under his skin today?"

"No idea…" Fives muttered, but in all honesty, he had a distinct idea of what may be bothering the Captain, but he'll save it for later when he has enough evidence, which he intends to get during this three-day course for Carida.

They soon boarded on a medical frigate that happened to be delivering supplies to and were well off on their way to the planet of Carida. The trip was the typical kind of trip that anyone would have when Hardcase, Fives, Jesse, and Coric are always within vicinity of each other. Spars at the gym, arguing over sabacc, and basically almost no occasion where there wouldn't be noise coming from where the group is.

But one thing that always sticks out from the group is Rex's absence from all the ruckus. He'd always be somewhere else, not that the group was always aware of his whereabouts since he always replied that he's checking on updated intel whenever anyone asked. He'd only return to the group only when the medical officers were complaining about the noise levels that the men were creating, or when it was time to bunk down. Even Echo, who usually took an unseemly pleasure in reading up on intel and briefings, refrained from offering to help the obviously troubled Captain to give him more space.

It's only a few more hours until they arrive at Carida, and Fives had kept all of his observations to himself, wanting to confront the Captain about it. But before all else, he decided to ask the Lieutenant for further information when they were walking back from lunch.

"Hey, Denal" the clone in question was in the middle of catching up with some news from Coruscant on his datapad.

"What's up Fives" he replied somewhat distractedly, still having his eye on his datapad.

Fives leaned in a bit, trying to keep his volume to a minimal "Got any idea what's happening with the Captain?"

Had Fives payed more attention, he would've noticed how Denal's finger had frozen for a split second, before seemingly gaining its motoric sense back and the Lieutenant ended up replying nonchalantly.

"Not a clue, why?"

The ARC Trooper can't help but flail his arms in confusion "What do you mean you got no clue? There's something off about him, and I think I know just why"

Denal didn't do as much as looking up from his datapad "Well good for you ya big boy, would you like a prize?"

"Wait, what?" Fives's had a mix of confusion and bewilderment in his tone "Don't you at least wanna know what I think?"

The trooper in question only sighed in resignation "Not really, but I have a gut feeling that my answer wouldn't matter"

Fives didn't want to waste more time, he'd been thinking about since the start of the transport, he wasn't about to let Denal's snark get in the way of his curiosity.

"I think our Captain misses the Commander"

Denal only gave him a light scoff "Don't we all Fives, don't we all…"

"Yeaah but it's Rex we're talking about!" Fives gave a gesture to himself "He wouldn't miss me even if I was gone for a standard year!"

A part of Denal felt absolutely done with the clone, but for some reason, he chose to reluctantly entertain him further.

"And why in the _ vheh _ would he miss you?"

"You kidding me?" he replied with a certain chagrin whilst pointing a finger to himself "Without me, he would never have a single bit of fun in any sort of thing you all would do"

Seeing the command centre approaching, he took the chance to swiftly end the conversation "Whatever you say Fives, in short, don't know and don't care, I'll see you when we're unloading"

"Wait hold up-" was all Fives was able to say before the command centre doors shut on him, leaving Denal inside a relatively deserted command centre safe for a few navigation officers.

In all reality, Denal hadn't been completely blind to the situation in hand. Both from his own observations, the General's message, and more notably, the Captain's request itself.

He had remembered the General's message that he got just before they prepared to disembark from the Kamino mission.

"_Heads up on the next assignments Denal, the Captain will need you and the rest of the men to keep up" _

"_Sir?" Denal could only reply out of reflex. _

_ Anakin only gave him a low chuckle "You'll see what I mean, just keep an eye on him would ya?" _

Well he tried his best General, but he doesn't know if there's anything that he could do about it.

Eventually, he figured out what the General meant by "he'll see".

It happened as soon as they finished settling in the frigate.

"_Denal, do me a favour would you" _

_ He barely had time to react to the Captain being behind him, similar to how he'd been caught off guard by his General. _

"_Sure, what'll it be brother?" _

_ Rex handed a datapad over to the Lieutenant, who took it without asking, knowing he'll get an explanation soon. _

"_Keep tabs on any development regarding the current Senatorial situation, especially the one's that are related to Chairman Papanoida" _

"_Uuhh, what for-" _

_ He didn't get to finish, already acknowledging the don't ask any questions look from the man opposing him. _

"_I mean- Uuh… Sir yes Sir?" _

"_Good" Rex had shortly replied "I owe you one, keep this from the others, got it?" _

_ Denal could give a small nod before being left alone, confused and overwhelmed by the Captain's behaviour. _

He had initially thought that the Senatorial situation had some moniker of connection with whatever situation that they might have done in Carida later on, but he later on came into a realization.

The realization of how the Commander had recently been assigned to many Senator-related tasks, at least three times just in the last month.

The Captain was keeping tabs on her using the only way he really can.

And Fives investigation had only seemed to cement that conclusion for the Lieutenant.

Albeit he meant it when he said that they all missed the Commander, but with Rex, it's never that simple when it comes to the feisty Togrutan. Not only had she developed a close kinship with the clone, but he had also taken her into more than just a pupil that his General had allowed to help train.

But also, as a close friend of irreplaceable value.

With this fact in mind, Denal can do nothing but respect his wishes and leaves it up to him to decide on how he's going to handle the situation, while he does the task that was given to him.

The man in question however, was having a hard time trying to wrap his head around his mind.

A part of him knew that his behaviour had been far too inconspicuous to the men. He knew that Fives had been paying extra attention to his person, and he knows that he's been off his game as of recently.

He's almost wishing that there'll actually be droids for them to encounter later, just for the sake of letting loose of all the pent-up frustration that he's been garnering ever since Balith.

Without realizing, he'd find himself walking towards the boarding bay. Normally a location he'd frequent when he has a certain Togrutan keeping him company.

Not that he would admit it out loud, both in retrospect to his hard shell and the fact that he didn't want to give Fives any leeway to his inner thoughts, but he had sorely missed the jovial energy of the Commander.

His time to reminisce was somewhat cut short, as he had only spent a few minutes in the bay before an officer has been coming to look for him.

"Captain Rex, General Skywalker's waiting for you at the holotable"

The Captain steeled his features and gave the officer a sharp nod as he made his move towards the command centre, where as he arrived, the General's projection has been expectantly waiting for him.

"Rex, there you are, how's it going so far?"

"Not much yet General" he replied plainly, gesturing to the scanners around "I've been in contact with the outpost and they have scanners out running non-stop. But there haven't been any signs of droids nor Seppie activities Sir"

"I see…" Anakin seemed a bit lost on the matter as well, he crossed his arms with a wistful expression "Well in any case, I've connected your commlink wavelength to the main backup signal relay, so in any case things go south, just tap the fourth channel and you should have backup coming to your location"

"Roger that General" Rex decided to be quite frank with the situation in hand "Though I doubt that any extra force will be necessary for this mission"

Anakin however, couldn't help but remain slightly perturbed by the situation "I wouldn't be too sure Rex. The Chancellor's rarely given false intel, so I'd suggest that you keep your bucket tight, I got an unusual feeling about this mission"

"Err… will do then, General" the Captain could reply as much, not wanting to argue with the General's logic.

Anakin gave the General a firm nod "Alright Rex, may the force be with you"

"You too Sir"

And with that, the transmission fades away. Rex only scratched his head in confusion, wondering how pointless this assignment can possibly seem to be.

Hours later, the frigate had finally landed in Carida's capital medical centre, and with a short trip through the forestry-mountainous terrain, they finally reached the outpost that had been receiving suspected Separatist signals.

"Captain, glad you could join us" the Sergeant on-duty saluted the group as they set foot at the entrance.

Rex, not wanting to dwell on how "glad" he is to be there, he gave a firm salute back and went straight for the information "How's the situation been developing?"

"Follow me Sir" the clone gestured towards the command centre, all whilst explaining about the development, or more to the lack of development that they have had. "There hasn't really been much over the past day, but there was something that really caught our scouts two days before"

The group collectively shared a look that varies between amusement and curiosity, before looking at the screens shown by the Sergeant, which was showcasing energy readings from a location not too far from the outpost.

"This was taken at O-Four hundred, right after we felt a small tremor surging through the base. Corporal Quinn and Jock immediately went off to give it a quick check on their AT-RTs. Location was estimated to have been about three or four clicks north of this outpost."

The readings that were displayed by the scanners had indicated that the energy had been mostly plasma, yet it is rated at an extremely high level for a location that's usually so barren and inhabited.

Fives decided to interject "And? What did those two scouts find?"

The Sergeant shared a quick look with a nearby trooper, who only shrugged, leading the Sergeant to sigh "That's the thing Sir, those two never returned, or in any case, hasn't returned from that scout mission"

Silence befell the group, with Denal chiming in "And did you somehow forgot to include that in your report to the headquarters?"

Aah no Sir" the Sergeant stopped to pick up a datapad showcasing the report that he had send "We inputted every bit of intel we had and sent it over to the Carida main headquarter. They got back and told us that it had been overseen by the Chancellor himself and is sending a squad from Coruscant to give it a check"

The group all gave a look towards their Captain, who had an unpleasant look on his face "Seems like that's what the Chancellor meant by Seppie activities"

Echo seemed to share the same view "Albeit he conveniently left that part of the intel behind"

"Speaking of convenience, and the Chancellor" the Sergeant cleared his throat, pointing into the outpost yard "He had personally allocated an AT-TE for your squad to operate in this mission Captain"

That got the Captain quirking his eyebrows in genuine amusement, while the rest of the squad remained speechless.

"An AT-TE? That's a bit much don't you think Sergeant?"

The clone in question simply shrugged his shoulders "Wasn't my decision Captain, for all I know, it was strictly Chancellor's orders"

The rest of the squad cringed, knowing that it had been the same statement that Rex had used on them to prevent more questions.

Sure enough, after clearing most of the finer details out, they went to the vehicle bay to see an AT-TE waiting for them to traverse in, to which Hardcase immediately ran off wanting to claim the cannon, prompting Jesse to chase after him, not wanting to let him have it all by himself.

"Alright then boys…" Rex signalled towards the two men running "Let's load up and get this over with"

Traversing the lands of Carida would've been a tasking duty had if it hadn't been for the AT-TE. Not that it had a difficult terrain, to the Captain's words that is, but the fact that the vehicle could just burrow through every piece of forestry and clear off the massive clearings in minutes, it makes the trip less of a hassle.

As the miles were getting covered, Denal had been enjoying his task of operating the massive terrain vehicle. Not only that, he was able to get away from the ruckus that Jesse, Hardcase, and Echo was constantly making, with the former two constantly arguing about who gets the cannon and Echo trying his absolute best to make it stop. Coric had somehow fallen asleep amidst the chaos, while Rex had been doing nothing but sit and observe whatever it is that he had on his datapad and Fives, well, he was paying close attention to the Captain.

From what he had gathered, the man had been busy checking updates on intelligence that could've been sent by General Skywalker in the downtime. At least, that's all that he thought the Captain was doing, until he notices that he had sneaked a quick check on a piece of news from the Senatorial section, had a quick smile all to himself, and placed the datapad down with a look of resigned happiness before drifting off to his own slumber.

Fives couldn't help but watch in amusement. Two months since the start of his sour mood, yet a simple article regarding Senatorial issues was able to crack a smile out of the Captain? It just didn't make any sense, no matter how hard he tried to find a correlation.

That is, until realization smacked him in the face like the Bantha that had run him over once.

During the course towards Kamino, he had been reading on a protection detail report that had involved the Commander.

Who's to say that these news reports are any different?

_ Chakaar he does miss the Commander! _Not that Fives hadn't thought about it before, but he never would've thought that taking Ahsoka away from the squad for a prolonged period of time is the one way to truly tick off the Captain.

_ Denal you prick, don't think I would've found out ey? _He thought to his lonesome self. But with all the pieces that he had gathered, he was able to take a quick shut eye with satisfaction, knowing that he knew exactly what was going on.

Little did he know however, that just as he closed his eyes, another pair opened ever so slightly to shortly observe his sleeping form, before shutting back once again.

Hours later, they were all woken up by a sudden jerk of the AT-TE. Most ended up flat on the floor, barely waking up from the small rest session that they had. Rex had reacted on time and stood battle ready, thinking that they were being ambushed, before he suddenly heard someone groaning from their faceplant position on the floor.

"Hardcase, I told you brake softly! These sudden stops won't be good for the AT-TE's legs!"

"Ah would you quit the whining Denal? Besides we're close to the signal area, so rise and shine ladies!"

Fives wasted no time in getting himself prepped, he had his own mission to run. Rising up, putting his helmet on, and gathering his tools and weapons, he immediately stood next to the Captain.

"Alright then boys, me and the Captain will go down to check it out, unload and wait for further instructions, got it?"

A chorus of weak yes Sirs were sounded out, most of them wanting to go back to getting some shut eye/ Rex gave the ARC trooper an inquisitive glare, only to be replied with a wink and the next thing he knew was that he was being dragged by the pauldrons, out of the AT-TE and into the open.

"Shall we begin, Captain?"

Even with his bucket on, Rex could tell that the _ di'kut _had the largest grin plastered on his shit-eating face.

So, with a tone that was almost a growl, Rex made a statement while poking him straight in the chest.

"Sure, but remember kid, ARC or not, I'm always _ first _, go it?"

Fives rolled his eyes, not that the Captain could see, but he could definitely tell form the tone "Yeah yeah, whatever old man. Let's just get walking"

With nothing more said, the two began their walk through the forestry, where unbeknownst to them, action had plans to burst on their face.

It had been quite a while since the two muttered words. Only occasionally pointing out strange readings from the scanner that they had, but besides that, it has silence all along the way.

Fives had been holding back his questions, wanting to formulate the correct chain of questions that he can use to talk with the Captain.

But to his surprise, it had been the Captain that decided to break the ice.

"Something on your mind Fives?"

Nowhere near prepared with his chain of questions, Fives could only stutter back at him.

"N-Not much Rex, how about you?"

Through his bucket, Fives could tell that he was being given that "You think I'm a massive idiot, you absolute twat?" look that people tend to give to him a lot when he tried to act it out of a situation. Realizing the grave that he had dug for himself, Fives had no choice but to go head on.

"How's the Commander doing?"

He could see the man in front of him went rigid, quickly looked away and began walking forward "No clue, we should get going-"

"Wait, hold on _ vod _" Fives quickly grabbed his shoulder, not wanting to lose the progress that he had made "I just want to talk, that's all!"

They had stilled for a moment, with Fives holding his breath waiting for the Captain's next move, before he felt the shoulder that he was holding relaxing, with Rex turning towards him, taking of his helmet.

"Talk about _ what _?"

"What? What do you mean about _ what _?" Fives practically yanked his helmet off and gestured at the Captain from top to bottom "This whole holostar broodiness thing that you have going! You haven't been like this ever since you had to stay out of commission two weeks after the Blue Virus incident!"

Rex internally cringed at that remark. Staying out of the frontlines had been quite literally torture for the Captain. Him and a certain Padawan that is. Which just leads him to think of just how off his game he had been recently.

"Well you know what it's about"

"Do I now?" Fives tried to act out his cluelessness "I have no idea what you're-"

"You think I wouldn't notice? Earlier you tried to sneak a read at what I'm looking at on my datapad. A rancor trying to break through a colosseum gate is much sneakier than how you were trying to peek earlier"

Fives knew that he had been caught, but he still refused to back down.

"At least that means that there is something wrong, and it's got to do with the Commander, doesn't it?"

To surprise, the usually steely Captain had gone silent, Fives almost thought that he had said something wrong and was about to apologize, before hearing him speak in a much sombre tone.

"I don't know Fives, I don't know why it's ticking me off so much. She's a Jedi, she has a duty to the council and the Republic in general, but it's just… so…"

"Frustrating?"

Rex gave a surprised look to the other man, which prompted him to realize that he hasn't been the only one thinking about it.

"Exactly"

"I know right? Maybe next time we should put a tag on her that says "Property of Torrent company, take her and you die" you know, or something like that"

Rex gave him a sharpened glare, although his lips were twitching.

"I was thinking more of a pendant or an accessory, butI'd reckon that a tag would be permissible under straining time"

Fives eyes glint with agreement "Oooh… that'll work too! We should give her a Torrent company necklace or something, that way it'll be usable at all times"

The two shared a chuckle, Fives relieved that the Captain is starting to loosen once again, while Rex is actually considering on making something for the Commander.

Not to mark her per say, but to give others a warning over the influence that she has in one of the most famed companies that GAR ever has.

Yet he still couldn't quite shake the feeling of being ticked off.

"I still don't get why it's ticking me off as much as it did"

"Uh… well" Fives wanted to give his words more thinking to it, but decided to just talk straight from the heart "You miss her vod, no one can blame you for that. I miss her, Denal misses her, everyone else misses her, heck even Kix misses her!"

Rex chuckles at his statement. As tough shelled the medic is, he could tell that he missed having the Padawan around to scold when she's messing around with his space.

"Like the Commander said Rex" Fives waved between the two of them "As much as we are clones, we are individuals. Having emotions are a part of being men. I'm pretty sure Echo keeps a holovid of that somewhere, just so that she doesn't have to say it when she's about to do it over and over again"

Fives then curled an arm around Rex's shoulder "Besides, had it been me being out of the squad for as long as she is, you would miss me all the same!"

Rex only gave him a laugh, alongside an incredulous stare "And why in the _ kriffing vheh _would I be missing you vod?"

Fives jerked back almost violently, as if he's been shot, complaining in a tone that is stuck between being exaggerated or fully genuine.

"Seriously? You too Rex? Come on… I feel _ really _under-appreciated here"

The other man had just been laughing while the other was rambling about people being ungrateful bastards, when Rex suddenly came to a halt.

"Fives, eyes front"

Instead of getting his eyes front, Fives only stopped and continued his childish acting.

"What? Are you gonna tell me that you'd leave to die in the field rather than helping me out? Way to make me-"

"Not that" Rex had spoken sharply and quietly, then pointed to something in front of them "_ That _"

Fives finally looked forward, only to see that there are two perfectly positioned AT-RTs just being idle in the clearing ahead.

He immediately knew that playtime was over.

With a nod, the two put their helmets on, each grabbing their weapon of choice while slowly advancing forward to the locations of the recon vehicles.

Utilizing their surroundings, they advanced from tree to tree, up until they were only a few steps away from the stationary vehicles.

With a nod from the Captain, they both sprung out, guns out, and aimed at the surrounding area.

Only to find nothing but green in sight.

After fully clearing the area, the two converged on the vehicles. Holstering their weapons to fully focus on inspecting it.

"No sign of forced removal" Fives remarked after inspecting the upper section.

Rex noted that his bare no signs of it as well, then moves to check the weapons, finding evidence it hadn't even been fired.

"Guns weren't even fired"

"No signs of attack, no signs of a quick battle, no sign of any of the troopers" the ARC trooper gave his surroundings one sweeping look, perplexed by the mystery in hand "What the hell happened here?"

Just as his words were still hanging in the air, a sudden tremor began spreading throughout the area. As the two steeled their stance, they noticed that a giant hole was splitting open right in front of them, causing both men to dive down for cover with Rex uttering a quick "Get down!"

Observing from their covers, they made sure that they had eye contact with each other and were able to coordinate from their positions as they await for whatever it is that is emerging from the ground.

To their surprise, the massive platform had fully raised to reveal a squad of battle droids. All prepped and ready to fire.

They advanced towards the location of the AT-RTs, and briefly stopped. Seemingly examining the location.

One of them began talking, "There's no one here"

Another voice seemingly coming out of their communicator sounded out "The sensors had picked up some movement around that location. Considering we found those two clones the last time, let us be meticulous this time and comb the area"

The usual "Roger roger" then sounded out from the droids as they fan out, with two of them heading towards the direction where the two clones have been hiding.

Rex immediately went to his commlink and activated his fourth channel, waiting for it to turn from red to green, indicating that his signal has been received.

As soon as it confirmed itself, Rex turned his focus back to the advancing droids, which are dangerously marching closer to their positions with every step.

He then overheard one of their communicators come on.

"We must not leave any loose ends. The Republic won't even know that a Super Defoliator will be ready to take over their vital Carida headquarters"

Rex's memories were instantly thrown back to their brief stint in Maridun and the Lurmen village that they had saved from the devastating destruction power of the Defoliator.

Realizing that this new weapon will definitely have a larger power attributed to it, turning this scout mission effectively to a search and destroy mission.

It is at these times where he really wishes that either the Commander or the General was here.

He heard a small whisper from Fives, who had his weapon up and ready, signalling he's going to attempt to kill the droids swiftly as to not alert the ones who are under the ground.

Rex nodded to the idea, and began waiting for his signal.

Just as two pair of droids were approaching their positions, Fives decided to reveal himself with one hand up in the air.

"Wait, don't shoot!" the clone shouted to momentarily distract them.

As the droids in front of him were caught off guard, Rex stood up and placed a bolt in each of the droid's heads in quick succession, and as the two he shot goes down, Fives pulls out his own Deecees and mirrored Rex's actions with the same results.

The other four droids of the squadron just about turned around, before having their heads blasted by the two clones. Swiftly ending their circuits to hell.

With no other words said, Rex and Fives head over to the AT-RTs, initially wanting to use them as a method to destroy other clankers that would show up, but was soon proven wrong as they had to use them to escape.

Just as they got on each respective AT-RTs, another hatch to the east opened up, albeit a relatively smaller hole than the giant one in the middle, it was apparently big enough to be able to reveal an AAT slowly aiming at their direction, with a droid on top shouting,

"BLAST THEM!"

"Well, time to skip out" Fives had shouted to Rex, and the two began jumping away with their recon vehicles, dodging cannon fires left and right as they maneuvered through the forest in desperate need to escape.

Luckily for them, with the speed and mobility of the vehicles that they had. They were able to get away from firing range rather quickly, and about half an hour later, they had situated their selves over two high mounds of fallen trees and big rocks, assessing the defensive positions that they would have to take to stop the droids from advancing.

"You reckon these rocks and trees would be able to fare pretty well against their tanks Rex?"

Still scoping the area, Rex replied without looking, but has a tone of finality laced to his words.

"They'd have to Fives. Or else, we'd be looking at an invasion on the Carida headquarters"

Fives understood the tone that he was using.

Rex was preparing for any instance of a final stand.

He heard the man chuckle, placing down his binoculars and looking towards him.

"Better now than never to get your ARC experience don't you think?"

"There he is!" Fives laughed with satisfaction, with Rex not fully understanding his reactions until Fives once again put his arm around his shoulder "There goes the broody Captain that's been haunting us for months now! At least I can die knowing that the good ol' Captain is back and running"

The Captain can only chuckle in amusement at his brother's unique outlook of life "Speaking of "us", have you been able to contact the others? I activated a backup beacon earlier but it doesn't look like we'll have much time"

Fives looked over to his commlink, pressing the main channel, only for it to let out static in reply. He tried all of his other channels, but to no avail.

"No luck over here vod"

"Damn these clankers, they must've placed signal jammers"

"Not to worry Captain" Fives said as he poured out his backpack contents, revealing a bunch of nades, and droid poppers, all at their disposal "I came packing with firepower"

Rex was about to comment on the amount of charges that he was carrying when his ears alerted him to a distant noise.

"Wait, I heard something"

Alerted himself, Fives went up high to check through with his binoculars, scouring the area for any signs of droids.

Then in the distance, Rex was the first to spot the incoming threat.

"There, northwest, about two hundred meters, at least two squads with a tank"

Fives then chimed in with his finding "Got the same here, northeast, same amount of squad and tanks"

The two went behind their respective covers, while Rex handed over a few grenades and poppers.

"Up for a challenge kid?"

"Always am Captain!"

They waited until both squadrons of droids and tanks approached their location, with a grenade in hand, they were measuring the trajectory that they would need to hit the tanks dead on, taking into consideration that every throw from here on will count.

As soon as the tanks hit their trajectory, Rex shouted,

"NOW"

Two nades began flying through the air, and the two clones began throwing poppers towards the squads of droids in front of each tank.

The two nades managed to land right under the tanks and took them right out of commission, leaving the men with only the droid squads to deal with.

Both poppers managed to take down a handful of the droids while the rest began their attack.

Albeit the droids outnumber the clone Commandos by one to six, they were still no match for the marksmanship that the battle-hardened clones have and the quick skirmish had ended as swiftly as it had begun.

With the remaining Supers being taken out, popping two bolts at each of their red eyes, it seemed as if they had easily taken down the squadron in a swift blow.

Which wasn't the case as Fives was about to holster his weapon, the tank that had been on his side had apparently not been destroyed completely, and the droid within was already aiming at the two clones.

Rex only noticed it for a split second,

"FIVES! GET DOWN!"

Fives didn't even have the chance to get down, and that was when a huge blast, followed by a huge explosion had occurred.

Rex thought they were done for.

Until the two opened their eyes, only to see the AAT had been blown to bits.

Fives took a look at Rex, then back to destroyed tank, and back to Rex.

"Nice… whatever it is that you did"

"Uuh…" Rex awkwardly rubbed his neck in confusion, whilst slowly scanning his area "That wasn't-"

"Whoop! A point to Hardcase!"

The two sharply turned towards the direction of the noise, finally locating the cause of the explosion.

Their grand AT-TE situated perfectly between the two mounds of cover that they had planned to hold out on.

Visibly exhaling, he turned to Fives in relief "Better time to see those freaks ey Fives?"

"Ain't that true Rex ol' boy"

Rex then turned back to see Echo and the rest walking right towards them, gesturing towards the chaos that they had created.

"What the hell happened here?"

Before answering, Rex had a question he wanted to ask first.

"Who'd you all find us? I thought our comms were jammed?"

"Well it was" Denal had begun answering, before gesturing towards the tanks "But then we heard an explosion, then we all thought huh, that must've been Fives"

The mentioned ARC didn't even have time to be offended before Coric added "Aren't we surprised to see that our Captain was also involved in the whole explode-fest that was unravelling over here"

Hardcase then dramatically went in front of the group, placing a hand on Rex's shoulder.

"He has officially joined us! The group happy-go-lucky explosion Extraordinaires!"

The whole group gave the joke a quick laugh, before Rex went initiated his Captaincy and got to explaining the situation.

"Listen boys, we got a huge situation in hand, and this might be do or die"

Jesse gave an audible groan "Ugh, you mean like Kamino the other day?"

Rex gave the soldier a pointed stare before relenting "Fair point, but this time, we only have the seven of us, a single AT-TE, four AT-RTs, and the nature around us. We have possibly a company of droids advancing to this location as we speak"

"Then we'll use all that we have to our advantage Sir!" bellowed out by Echo.

"That's what I like to hear" Rex smirks to his squad. These are people that he had personally known and battled with for the majority of the months that the Torrent company has grown, and he plans to exploit all of their capabilities then and there.

"I'm splitting us into three parts. Hardcase, Jesse, and Denal you'll be in those mounds. Take two of the AT-RTs that you have and mount them on the mounds, therefore we can use them as mini-turrets, before you start firing with the turrets, snipe off their signal jammers, then we'll wait until our comms are back and I'll give the signal to fire"

"Sir yes Sir!" the three chorused out before heading towards their assigned position, quickly setting up for the impending assault.

Rex then turned his attention to the final four.

"Fives, Echo, it's time to make that promotion count. Get yourself far behind enemy lines, but don't strike until I give the signal. The droids would be too preoccupied by the big gun that we have and would barely have time to react to your surprise attack, get them from the sides!"

"Copy that Captain"

The two ARCs then rushed forward to find a suitable position to ambush the incoming droids, leaving Rex and Coric to their own devices.

"Coric, you're with me"

The medic held his weapon up "Where to Sir?"

"You and me, we're getting on the AT-RTs"

Rex then takes a quick look at their surroundings, and smirks.

"We're going to be chopping some trees"

Not even ten minutes later, the ground had began vibrating, indicating the approach of droid squadrons in multiple folds right to their location.

In the apparent occasion, Rex had been sorely mistaken. From his initial point of view, there's already at least two companies that he can account for. Not to mention the six tanks that are being escorted by the massive squadrons.

They were outnumbered to the multitudes of the hundreds.

But none of that was going to deter the Torrent Captain.

All of that only meant that his strategies are just going to have to be more efficiently put to use.

With that being said, the first phase of the plan had been successful.

Rex and Coric made a supposed "clearing" between the rare breaks of the trees to somewhat coerce the droids to take the path they had so helpfully cleared out for them, yet it is all for a trap.

Denal and Jesse are holding steady at their sniping positions. Both already locating the signal jammers at the back of the tanks, meaning that when they shoot it off, none of the droids would probably realize that they've lost their jammers. Hardcase on the other hand, only has his trigger-happy fingers to worry about, so as to that he doesn't fire too early.

Echo and Fives has a handy location under the trees where they can easily shoot the droids by their legs and finish them as they are incapacitated.

The Captain and the medic had prepped a surprise that the Captain could only hope to work better with the larger number of droids that they are apparently facing off against.

Rex had been paying close attention to the signal jammers, waiting for the moment when Denal and Jesse are going to take them out.

With careful coordination, Jesse and Denal had their sights on each signal jammers, careful counting down until their supposed shots are taken.

Three.

Two.

One.

With a quick flurry of suppressed shots, they had taken out the four signal jammers almost simultaneously.

And within moments, Rex hears the static off of him commlink clears out, going back online, and ready to communicate.

Without preamble, Rex whispers in.

"Light 'em up Hardcase!"

Seconds later, a huge blast had totalled the centre line of the droid frontline droid company.

Chaos erupted.

The turrets immediately went to work on the first few lines of B-1s, with Hardcase continuing his massive cannon blasts from his mound-covered positions.

In typical droid fashion, their commanders issued the command to charge and charge did the droids go, all lining up into the trap that the Captain had set.

Seeing as they were far more centred, Rex and Coric began their move, shoving the full weight of the AT-RTs into the line of trees that were fencing the droids in their path, knocking them over and effectively wiping out massive lines of droids that were to the side, leaving the centre line even more exposed.

Noticing the massive change of the droid's formation, Hardcase began to focus his cannon fire into the centre line of each row, wiping more of the frontline company that had been charging towards their chokepoint.

While the others were having a more frontal face-off with the droids, Echo and Fives were relatively just shooting nonchalantly at the foot of the Supers, and finishing them off while they're down on the ground.

Fives thought that it was all going too well, even for a squad of seven clones who were highly experienced in battlefield.

He was about to experience what people often calls karma.

Hardcase, as best as he can, had begun taking out the tanks. He was halfway to decimating the tank lines when he suddenly realized that there were two MTTs hidden right behind the line of tanks.

They just about took out the first company of droids, with the second company marching dangerously close, they were just about to pull ahead when the MTTs decided that it was time to deploy their storage of troops.

Meaning a new, fresh, company of battle droids were about to come in to the battle.

And that they would desperately need a miracle to be able to pull through this one.

"Oy Cap! We got a fresh company deploying from the MTTs in the back!"

"What!?" Rex was still in the midst of trying to thin the next frontlines of droids, before he scopes ahead and notice the newly deployed droids all getting ready to line up and charge.

_ Kriffing hell _ . He definitely did not account for an extra _ company _of droids to be deployed from transports that they really should've seen coming.

However, that wasn't the end of the sudden turn of battle.

"Hardcase INCOMING!"

Was all he heard in the comms before an accurate AAT shot had managed to land a blow on the AT-TE, blowing it's cannon up. Thanks to the warning, Hardcase had managed to jump away, but didn't go by unscathed.

"Sir, Hardcase needs some assistance!"

Rex didn't even hesitate to give out the command.

"Coric get your _ shebs _back to the AT-TE, help out Hardcase!"

"But- Achk!" he momentarily stopped his words to dodge a bolt and took two down "What about you Sir!?"

"I'll be fine!" Rex shouted back almost instantaneously, with the medic giving a sharp nod, and begins his retreat while Rex does his best to cover him.

Fives who had been hearing the entire debacle on the comms rang up to Rex "Rex are you crazy!? That line is still as thick as Jabba the Hutt's _ kriffing _body!"

Rex didn't answer, knowing full well the risks that he is taking by sending Coric back.

"That stubborn- Argh" Fives quickly commed Echo "Echo, cover the lines! I'm going to make sure that _ di'kut _doesn't get himself killed"

"Copy that vod" Echo instantly replied and got himself off of his position to further distract the squad of droids that were advancing towards Fives.

Darting left and right between multiple line of droids, Fives was trying his hardest to get to Rex's position as quickly as he could, but the abundant amount of droids had delayed his path and he was growing increasingly aware of the increasing amount of droids that were marching right behind him.

On the other hand, Rex had actually been putting a great stand for a lone soldier in the middle of a droid company line, shouting and punching down all the close-quarter droids while finishing him off with his Deecees.

That was until he failed to notice that a tank had a lock-on to his position.

Echo was the first one to notice, seeing the barrel of the tank move towards the Captain's general position, immediately warning Fives.

"Fives, a tank's got a lock on to Rex!"

"It's got what!?" Fives looked towards the line of tanks in horror, realizing that one indeed has a straight shot for the Captain.

"REX! GET DOWN!"

Rex only had a split second to see the barrel of the tank directly locking on to him, before immediately jumped down to the ground.

"REX!"

He was slightly alarmed by the fact that that last voice didn't sound like any of his brothers, but wasn't able to dwell on it for too long as the cannon's plasma bolt had struck near the ground that he was standing at, and promptly launched him a good few meters towards their defensive mounds.

After getting ragdolled for a good few seconds, his body finally came to a stop.

He tried to move or open his eyes, but had to struggle tremendously just to flip his lying body upwards, and ends up propping himself on one elbow.

His vision was surrounded by white.

His ears were ringing beyond absolute believe.

His whole body felt slightly numb.

"Sir, are you alright sir?"

Was the fade of a voice that he could only hear ever so slightly.

That was when his vision began to clear up.

Now he could see that the clone trying to prop him up was neither one of the seven that he had originally been with.

Then another clone passed by.

And another.

And another.

Until a whole squadron of them fully passes him by.

That was also when he realized that the amount of clones that are there had been multiplied to a massive amount.

All of them charging towards the now diminishing line of droids.

He was still trying to process his new sighting before a voice calls out to the trooper propping him.

"Forsythe, get up there and help your brothers, leave the Captain to me!"

The clone in question nodded in affirmation "Right away Commander"

_ Did he just say Commander? _

As soon as Forsythe released his support on the Captain, his rough touch was immediately replaced by a far gentler and careful touch, supporting his back and carefully removing his helmet from his head.

"Rex, hey Rexster! Focus on me"

A slight blur of green and orange went by his vision when he felt a soft hand on one side of his cheek, and then caressing his head with greater care.

His vision eventually focuses on, and his eyes laid on the face that he had sorely missed seeing over the past few months.

"Ahsoka?"

The Togrutan's blue orbs shone with relief "Oh thank the Force…_ kriffing _hell Rexster you scared the life out of me"

Rex still couldn't wrap his head around his vision. Had the blast put him in a coma?

He was still questioning his vision until he felt a familiar pressure on his torso.

As he regained his bodily senses, she had once again wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him as tightly as she could.

Her words on his ears were his final prove.

"I missed you, you absolute _ sheb _"

Recognizing her odd choice of vocabulary, he only just began to wrap an arm slowly around her, relishing the warmth and fulfilment that he had missed for so long, while also slowly regaining his normal speaking ability.

"I missed you too kid, how'd you get here? Did backup finally arrive?"

She lets out a slightly watery chuckle "Rex, you idiot"

She tightened her hug for a split second, before finally letting go.

"I _ am _the backup. As soon as I got back from freeing Chairman Papanoida's daughters, I got a call from Anakin to join up and help you with this assignment, but when you turned your beacon on, the Carida headquarters immediately sent massive backup for you and I joined in"

As Rex was processing the new batch of information when his commlink went off.

"Rex, it's Jesse, we got backup! Do you copy? We got backup!"

Rex could only roll his eyes at the soldiers short thought process, catching a giggle from Ahsoka.

"Yes Jesse, I have _ eyes _" Rex gave an incredulous look at guffawing Padawan "How's the situation? Is Hardcase stable?"

"We got two companies charging over towards the remainder of the droid lines, and yeah Hardcase is fine" Jesse seemed to pause for a bit, before continuing "Actually, hold on. Oy Hardcase! Where'd you think you're going? What!? Hardcase no it's my turn to be on the cannons! What do you mean suck it!? OY, HARDCASE!"

And with that, the comm went off.

Rex could only watch in amusement, both at the immaturity of the soldiers that he calls some of his finest, and at the Togrutan teenager who was rolling around in a fit of laughter.

"You having fun there?"

"Oooh you have nooo idea!" she answered while wiping literal tears of her eyes, she then sat up and looked at him with a look of fondness "I've absolutely missed you boys, all of you!"

Rex could only let out the first genuine smile that he has had ever since Balith.

"We all missed you kid"

Ahsoka promptly stopped her shenanigans, and gave Rex a heartfelt gaze.

"I know you do. I know you all do"

The two momentarily forgot that they were still in the middle of a battlefield, but only when the deafening sound of a Maad-21 cannon firing out were they snapped off of their trance.

"That reminds me, we still have a battle to finish" Ahsoka said, as she stood up, offering her hand to assist the Captain, which he gladly took.

As she heaved him up, and made sure that he was steady, she suddenly gave him a jab to the side, prompting him to almost double-back, mostly to surprise.

"What was that for?"

"_ That's _ for getting shot by a _ tank _, and scaring the life out of me"

"Well it wasn't like I had a choice-"

"Uuup, excuses, excuses. You'll learn next time _ Captain _"

She was about to walk away mischievously, but was surprised when she felt a soft slap at the back of her head. She looked back to see that the Captain had a satisfied smirk gracing his lips, while he saw her unbelieving face.

"_That's_, for not properly negotiating with the tank bolt that was about to hit me"

She was finding trouble to get a retort out, she finally relented with a smile "Alright fine, we'll call it even then"

"That won't be acceptable"

"How so?" she asked almost sounding disappointed.

"You were gone for three _ months _, I think that warrants some extra making up time from you"

"But I had no choice-"

"Uuuup, excuses, excuses. You'll learn next time, _ Commander _"

She gawked undignifiedly as he walks past her, then she pointed accusingly at him "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

The Captain spared a quick glance, but not completely looking at her.

"Just making sure you keep up, Ahsoka"

The battle had eventually gone by pretty quickly. With the rest of the underground bunker being detonated out of existence, and the Super Defoliator never had its prime chance of being used in what could've been massive destruction for the Republic.

The 501st whooped in celebration for their Captain, his squad, and their new ARC troopers that had cemented theirselves as true heroes and soldiers of the Republic, also for finally having their feisty Commander return permanently to the frontlines.

As a message from the General came in to congratulate the success of his legion, he had told them that they were to load up and be en-route to Coruscant the following day, which to the men meant a night of celebrating their victories.

Everyone had been enjoying theirselves all around while the moon shines bright upon their camp. With most of the other clones including Jesse, Hardcase, and Coric deciding to go into the Carida capital, the camp was somewhat deserted, yet it had its fair share of food and entertainment, which prompted Ahsoka, Rex, Denal, and the two ARCs to stay back and have their own downtime there instead.

"By the way, congratulations on the promotion to ARC you two, don't be like Rex and be more considerate when you're in front of _ tanks _"

Rex only replied by slapping her on the back of her head again, prompting her to shove him in mock annoyance.

"Stop doing that!"

Her complaint was only met by laughter from the surrounding clones, inducing a pout from the teenager.

"Wow, three months and the first thing you guys do is bully me. Why did I even come back, should've just left you boys to fend for yourselves"

"Ah but you wouldn't" Fives interjected, obviously a bit drunk from all the celebration "You love us too much"

Everyone had a renewed round of laughter to that statement, before she sighed in satisfaction to the comfort that she had missed dearly.

"Yeah okay fine… I do love you all"

A wistful chuckle went out of everyone's mouth from that statement, recognizing the truth to it and just how much she had grown to care for these men, and a comfortable silence once again envelops the group.

That is before Fives started acting up again.

"Oh yea Rex! I had two things that I wanted to know, which are;" he paused himself as a slight hiccup escaped his throat "Ask the Commander about that other thing we talked about, and second, I know one more reason on why you missed having the Commander around"

Before Rex could interject, Ahsoka had asked faster "Which is…?"

Fives hiccuped a bit more, before unstably pointing at her lightsaber "It feels good to not have to dodge every bolt that comes your way, since most would be deflected if we have the Commander around!"

Ahsoka couldn't help but roll her eyes at his statement "Haha, very funny Fives" and she turned to give a pointed look at the Captain, who seemed to be trying his best to look at her in the eyes, which brought her to a snappy realization "Seriously Rex? You're above that!"

"Err… but he does have a point Commander" he purposely massaged his neck to showcase more of his fatigue "Having to continuously dodge bolts _ can _be tiring after a certain period of time"

She slapped his side once again, eliciting a chuckle from the Captain, then turning her attention to a Fives that is barely keeping awake.

"Echo, I think it's time for you to check Fives out of here, he looks like he'd fall off the planet any second now" gesturing towards Denal, who had long pass out somewhere in the middle of their conversation "As per showcased by the Lieutenant over there"

"I agree, Commander" with a huff, the ARC trooper hoisted his brother's arm over his shoulder and began walking towards their bunk "Let's get you out of the prank zone vod"

Which left Ahsoka with Rex, both of which had just been enjoying each other's company. Relishing the feeling of once again partnering up and facing the world as a duo.

But there was one part of Fives's statement that got her thinking.

"So, what's this thing that Fives wanted you to ask me?"

Rex gave her a genuine stare of confusion, before recalling the conversation that the two had before discovering the droid's bunker and chuckling to himself.

"Ooh… he was talking about _ that _ question"

This perked Ahsoka's curiosity "_What _question to be exact, Captain?"

Observing her curious orbs, he inhaled and exhaled quite loudly, before fully turning his attention towards her awaiting person.

"Do Togrutans prefer necklaces or pendants?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEW! THAT. WAS. LONG!
> 
> Props to Jade-Max's Captain and Commander story (that I freakin love so much) to give the headcanon of Ahsoka's pendant coming form the Torrent company :D
> 
> Thanks for making it all the way down here yow! You guys da real mvps!


	3. Tight and Reassuring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... umm...
> 
> Yeah, this chapter is 24k words, almost 25k.
> 
> BY far the longest chapter I've ever written, and probably the longest I'll have written.
> 
> And it's that sweet mixture of angst, friendship, with a spice of fluffiness every now and then :D
> 
> I know it's been months since I updated anything, but stupid old me decided that writing a heck ton of multiple stories at once is a good (NOT) idea.
> 
> With all that is to be said, I can only say,
> 
> ENJOY!

* * *

Anakin Skywalker was nowhere near happy.

Then again, as far as Rex could tell, there was no reason for anyone within the 501st to feel jubilant about anything.

It's been five days since Ahsoka Tano went missing in Felucia.

It's also been five days of frantic searching for the entirety of the Torrent company, with all efforts always ending up with nothing of good use coming out of it.

And that day seemed to be all the same as he saw Fives and Echo disembark from their transport with a gloomy look plastered on their features.

When news came out through the forces that the famed Commander of the 501st have gone missing, the two ARCs immediately reported in from Kamino, before their General even said any word about assisting them in finding the Commander.

He explicitly remembered the words that they had said to the General when they arrived three days earlier.

"_Kamino may be home Sir, but we'll be damned if you expected us to just sit around when our vod could be out there needing help" Fives said without hesitation._

"_And with all due respect General; we at the very least, owe her this much, Sir." Echo had added with the same confidence._

As much as he appreciated their loyalty to her, the search results were still as fruitless as it had originally begun. Not that he blamed them. Besides, there were close to zero continuing clues, other than the fact that they know that she wasn't on Felucia anymore. Which left basically the rest of the galaxy to be a possible location for her to be in.

But as slim as the chances are, Rex held his believe in her. No one's to say that she isn't putting her own effort to come back to them, and knowing her determination, she will stop at nothing to eventually find her way back home.

As long as his General held his hope, then Rex wouldn't have his waver at the slightest.

Yet despite all that, he couldn't help but still feel the bearing that he's forced into due to the situation in hand.

It's no secret that when time became hard on the soldiers of the Torrent company, they all look towards the ever-cheery Commander to bring the situation back up for them.

And more often than not, she'll always find a way to cheer everyone up. Even though sometimes her methods comes at the expense of either one of the Commandos, himself, or during some desperate times, at the expense of the General.

However, when she wasn't around to cheer them up, the General would also be able to encourage the boys with his words of motivations, and would usually proceed with giving them the most ridiculous plan of attack, all in order to get a kick out of them and raise the morale back up a bit. It's a bit less effective than the feisty Togrutan's methods, but it's usually good enough that it gets the boys back into a fighting spirit.

The situation in hand, however, was the first occurrence of its kind.

Her disappearance took an incredibly visible toll on the General, and with the top two sources of motivation practically off the board, most of the company turned to the Captain to get some clear guidance on the situation.

Which, despite his best efforts, and his adamant refusal to ever admitting it.

He couldn't help but feel just as lost as most of them were.

Every time people came up to him asking about the situation, all noticeably needing reassurance that their search would not be in vain, all he could think of are the words that she would say to him.

"_Chin up Rexster! We'll get some clankers to shoot in the shebs soon enough!"_

How he wished that she had shown him how she does it.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of crates collapsing some steps ahead of him.

Tracing the source, it came to a scowling Fives who had his brows furrowed, obviously upset, venting his frustrations on a nearby stack of crates. All while Echo only stares ahead in disappointment, picking on the metal gratings of his mechanical hand, which he had lost during their escape from the Citadel.

_Could've been worse if the Commander wasn't there to pull him out of the wreck._

Soon enough, they two stopped a few steps short before him, neither willing to start up the depressive conversation.

A deep sigh escaped his lips, giving the two ARCs a presumptive look.

"No luck?"

The two shared a look of a regret, before Fives began his report.

"We scoured the entirety of the report's region Rex," he admonished. "The sighting report was a bust, absolutely no indication of her anywhere."

"Great," he grumbled pointedly, averting his vision to the ground, "What a waste…"

"Not entirely though."

Looking back up, he found himself surprised when Fives was holding a very familiar cylindrical object in his hand.

Rex would recognize that weapon anywhere.

"Her lightsaber?"

"Yeah, buried quite deep a few clicks off the back walls. We suspect that whoever caught her wanted to get rid of it, seeing that we couldn't find her other one."

At the end of his statement, Rex just about unclipped something from under his kama, showing the two ARCs her shoto.

Fives and Echo shared a confused look, not knowing what it all meant.

"Denal found it under some shrubbery. I was under the impression that she was at least armed with one saber, now we know that she doesn't have any of her weapons."

He can basically see their shoulders deflate as this revelation practically meant that she has less of a chance to be effectively surviving out there. Seeing as her main weapons are nowhere in her reach.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Rex calmly stated while reclipping her shoto. He proceeded to open his palm to receive the saber that Fives was offering, "She can beat any one of us one-on-one in hand combat, she can definitely handle a bunch of lowlifes."

Murmuring in agreement, Fives looked at the saber in hand for a split second, before handing it to Rex.

"You're gonna hand it over to the General?"

"Seems like I have to…"

"Is it a good idea though?" Echo interjected.

Rex knew what the ARC is implying. With how troubled the General had been, it would have been in their best interest to at least keep what little assurance that he has by letting him believe that his apprentice still has at least one of her weapons with her.

"I get what you're saying Echo." Rex muttered back, trying to create a sensible justification towards his actions, "I know that the General wouldn't like this one bit, but you know better than anyone that I can't hold on to this without informing the General in any form of way."

"Yeah, I do know. Protocols and regs would not allow that." Echo replied with resignation, silently wishing that the Captain hadn't remembered his particular interest with reading all the GAR regulations there is, but he knew that it was a long shot in itself.

"Well then, we'll go with you." Fives offered, understanding that the lack of progress in finding the Togrutan will further upset the General, which might bring more unintentional reprimand for the Captain.

"It's fine, Fives." Rex placed a hand on the ARC's shoulder, grateful for the gesture, "I can handle it from here, you two get some rest. I'll make sure the General is notified of your efforts."

Echo gave the Captain a questioning stare, "You sure Rex?", which was only replied with a firm nod from the Captain as he began walking towards the general direction of the command centre.

The two ARCs knew better than to push the Captain even further, they gave a noncommittal shrug to each other, picked their helmets, and begun walking towards the barracks for some well needed rest.

Scouring through the camp that they had set up for the campaign, Rex came across Denal who was looking through the newly arrived supplies, all with the same gloomy expression that Fives and Echo had held.

The Lieutenant was so fixated on the datapad that he's been holding, he didn't even notice that his Captain had suddenly stood right next to him.

"Denal?"

Rex almost flinched himself when Denal suddenly lurched forward to catch the datapad that had been secured in his grip. Before he settled himself and responded to the Captain.

"Rex!? You know I hate it when things sneak up on me."

"I really wasn't…" the Captain replied, before pointing towards the far entrance of the camp, "I've been trying to get your attention ever since I came in."

"Ah, well…" Denal placed the datapad on top of the crate, signing it off. "I must've been preoccupied. What do you need?"

A quick scan of his posture was all Rex needed to know that even his Lieutenant is feeling off, but he decided to let it be for the time being, "You've seen the General? I have a bit of an update to give to him."

"Is it about the Commander?" Denal had begun looking hopeful, a bit of a sparkle returning to his eyes, "Did Echo and Fives find anything?"

Rex was full of regret as his answer quickly diminished the sparkle of hope that had so quickly fired up on one of his oldest friends, "Nothing to be excited about, unfortunately."

"Damn it." Denal had grunted.

His clenched fist was enough for Rex to further see Denal's desire to help his Commander. And he really couldn't blame him, since without the Commander, Denal would've probably been long dead in the hands of that bounty hunter that had infiltrated the cruiser during their skirmish on Devaron.

"Don't worry about it, Denal." A hand on his troubled friend's shoulder was enough to at least calm him down for the time being, "She'll be fine. It's going to be time where either we find her, or she finds her way back to us."

"Yeah, Rex. I can only hope for either one of those things to happen." Denal finally looked up with a bit less of a gloom on his eyes, "Speaking of the General, he and General Kenobi were in the command centre just now. Probably haven't been long, so they should still be there."

Nodding in affirmation, Rex let go of his shoulder and began to make his way to the command centre, "Thanks brother. Keep your head up."

As he was approaching the command centre, he had been trying to arrange the words that he'd be using in order to make the reports that he's about to give to the disgruntled General not sound as terrible as it might've sounded like, but his thoughts were slowly interrupted by the gradual phasing of said General's voice into the peripherals of his hearing. He wasn't one to eavesdrop but listening to the particular tone that his General had been using, he couldn't help but freeze in place.

"-ok, Obi-Wan. I'm not letting this get as dragged as it already is." Anakin Skywalker's troubled tone sounding even more out as Rex gets closer to the command centre, "I'm going out there to find her."

Hearing that statement caused a curious eyebrow to stand out as Rex decided to use this opportunity to keep a distance where he can still hear what the Generals are saying while still being quite out of the range of their perception.

"Anakin, you know that it isn't possible." The voice of the older Jedi started sounding out, "We are needed elsewhere, and the more resources we expend on this research, the more we are lacking in other fronts of the battle. Much less losing you to the myriad of this search."

"Then we're just supposed to give up!?" Anakin's voice began growing in volume, "That is not an option that I'm willing to take, Master." A resounding pause went through the air as the General sounded like he was trying his hardest to keep himself together, "Not ever, and especially not since what happened in Mortis."

_Mortis? _Rex had begun thinking. _What place is that? And what had happened that concerned the Commander?_

His thoughts were duly interrupted by Obi-Wan's cautious voice.

"Anakin," Rex could hear that the older General is having a hard time keeping his old apprentice together, "What happened in Mortis was out of our hand. We had no idea what we were up against, and certainly she didn't-"

"Just like how it is now, huh!?" Anakin had interjected, his voice sounding more desperate instead of angry, "Master, we have no clue where she is, we have no idea where to go find those clues, and she doesn't have anyone of us to watch her back. Not you, not me, and not even Rex!"

Hearing his name, Rex tried to listen harder, trying to make sure that he doesn't miss any of the following sentences.

"Calm down, Anakin." Obi-Wan's voice struggling to sound even, "Your Captain wasn't even on Mortis."

"That's exactly my point!" Anakin argued back, "Normally if none of us are there, I can rely on Rex to watch her back! But you see what happened the one time, when neither us, nor even Rex was there to help her!"

Now Rex's interest had peaked even further. Knowing that there was something that the Commander hadn't told him recently.

"It's not the same Anakin-"

"She was _dead_, Obi-Wan."

"…"

For a second, Rex had surely felt his heart stopped beating momentarily as he staggered towards a nearby crate.

Dead?

Ahsoka Tano was _dead_?

Rex barely had time to process the startling information when Obi-Wan began speaking again.

"Anakin, you know that it did not work out that way-"

"But how it led to that is exactly the same!" Anakin's voice now much softer, yet wavers in almost every word he speaks out, "I let her get taken away, I was too late to stop her from being used by the Son." A shaky breath interrupted his sentences, before barely being able to continue, "I'm late as well this time, not knowing what she's up against; not that that had helped us before, and now I can't be there for her."

Silence befell the command centre, Rex himself suddenly realizing the sullen and suffocating atmosphere that had encompass them.

Freezing him.

And quite frankly there had never been anything more discomforting than the tension that he is feeling at the moment.

"I don't want to see the image again, Obi-Wan." Anakin starts speaking again, "Or even feel that image again. Her body so still and fragile. Her eyes… so empty… devoid of any soul. So…"

Anakin had to stop himself once again, evidently close to losing his bearings.

"Lifeless…"

Rex wasn't sure if his General was still talking about his Commander, because none of those descriptions fit her in any shape or form.

"And I'm sure we won't ever see that again Anakin." Obi-Wan assured his old Padawan, although Rex could tell from his tone that the older General wasn't as confident as he had been trying to sound like, "She's strong with the Force. And with the training that you have given her, she will be able to find her way back here."

None of those words seemed to have convinced the younger General in any way, "And what if she doesn't, Master?" Rex could practically feel his General's sense of worry just radiating from his person, "I trust her with my life to figure things out on her own, but what if I haven't taught her enough? What if I failed her through not being able to train her the way I'm supposed to?"

Another pause, this time almost with Anakin sounding as if he wasn't exactly talking about his Padawan's situation in specific.

"What if I failed to protect her, Master?"

"Anakin, dwelling on the what ifs will not get us anywhere. Besides," Obi-Wan's became much calmer than it was before, "Have more faith in yourself. You might have been less than prepared when she became your Padawan, but thanks to your guidance, she has survived many perils which would've been her doom if not for your teachings."

"I don't know, Master…" Anakin's voice close to sounding utterly defeated, Rex himself couldn't quite believe that this is the General of the 501st battalion that many has recognized as one of the most energized and inspiring Generals that the Republic has. "I don't know…"

Never could he had imagined his General to sound so dispirited.

"In any case…" Rex began hearing Obi-Wan's voice get slightly closer, yet his dishevelled state of mind failed to notify him that it had indicated that the General had made a move for the exit of the command centre, "The council will be briefing us in a new assignment soon, best to not keep them waiting."

Anakin replied with nothing but a short grunt, not even bothering to make a coherent response.

Barely realizing that the two Generals were stepping out of the command centre, Rex just about snapped himself into the regular soldier mode as they stepped out of the passageway.

Obi-Wan was first to react, voice calmer than the how he had heard it just a few minutes ago, "Ah Captain. We could really use some good news right now."

Rex tried his hardest to keep his voice as firm and professional as he usually is, but his first few words had come out as shaky at best, "Err… unfortunately Sir," he cleared his throat to better stabilize his voice, hoping that neither of the Generals had picked up on it. "Echo and Fives just returned from their scrub of Felucia."

"And?" Anakin suddenly cuts in, sharing the same expressions that Denal had held earlier, "What did they find?"

Suddenly, the weight of the two sabers clipped under his kama became much more apparent.

"Err…"

The expectant stare that Anakin had held caused him to mentally flick between giving the sabers and keeping them in place. He was close to reaching under his kama before the words that he had heard before rang in his mind.

_I don't want to see that image again, Obi-Wan._

His General needed all the reassurance that he can get at the time, Rex finds that this is his way of contributing to that reassurance.

"They didn't find anything, Sir. Just all the more evidence that the Commander is no longer on the planet."

Seeing the hope fade out in his General's eyes, just like Denal had, Rex wasn't sure that he'd last much longer if he had to deal with more of that for the following days.

Especially after the new revelation that he had just uncovered.

"What a waste." Was all Anakin said as he grunted and began walking off towards the cruiser. Leaving a sombre Obi-Wan and downcast Rex right in front of the command centre.

A sigh escaped Obi-Wan's lips as the two watched the young General walk further from where they were.

And if Rex previously didn't want to admit that he had felt lost, he'd be damn well admitting that a clue or two right now wouldn't sound so bad.

Because no tactics that he can formulate in his brain would help him process everything that he's currently trying to make sense of.

"You must forgive your General, Captain." Rex's attention averted to the older Jedi who had placed a hand on his shoulder, "Anakin's judgement can be clouded when it comes to… topics of sentiment." That was when Obi-Wan spared a glance towards the Captain, before realizing that the Captain's expression is one that he had never seen his features settled on, "Rex? You're not looking well. Is something bothering you?"

Rex cursed himself internally, wanting to reprimand himself for the lack of professionalism he's displaying in front of the General, yet he couldn't bring himself to make an excuse over his mood towards the situation.

"It's nothing, General." He snapped himself to stand up straighter, realizing that he had been slightly slouching, "Me and the boys are just worried for the Commander."

He made sure to add "the boys" to further push the focus away from his evidently distraught self.

Unbeknownst to him however, Obi-Wan was not to be easily fooled with such methods of distractions. But the Jedi Master knew when the men want to keep something to their selves, so he did the only thing he could do out of respect.

"It is not a terrible thing to be worried once in a while, good Captain." Obi-Wan began speaking, almost in a manner that he would use to speak to both Anakin and Ahsoka, "As much as you are soldiers, feelings are an inevitable aspect to have in being a man." Obi-Wan took a step forward, before fully turning towards the Captain, "Ahsoka is one of a kind. In such a short time, she had made quite an impact towards the men, but dare I say Captain, more on yourself, no?"

The Captain could only garner nothing but a few intakes of breath, opening his mouth to reply in multiple occasions, wanting to reply to the words the wise Jedi has spoken, but eventually finding nothing that he can really say to add or to dispute from the statement.

Satisfied that his point was taken, Obi-Wan gave the contemplating Captain a slim smile, before saying, "She will return, Captain. As much as Anakin doubts himself, he has taught her to the point where she is resourceful enough to be able to find her way back. Oh, and relay our gratitude to Fives and Echo. They've done well."

As Obi-Wan left him alone with his thoughts, Rex found himself in a state of confoundment as was still dwelling on the sentences and the revelations that he had been unintentionally trusted upon him.

Realizing that his feet are suddenly giving in to his weight, Rex practically scurried into the command centre and leaned himself onto the console before it can his legs suddenly felt like utter jelly.

_Lifeless…_

Anakin's words had rung through his mind once again, as if his brain is trying to rack up a sensical image of that particular state would've looked like on the ever-jovial Commander.

"No," he muttered to no one, "Not a possibility." Even when the Padawan had almost succumbed to the blue shadow virus all those years ago in Naboo, she still looked like she had quite a bit of a spark left in her person. But even then, he had sworn to himself that he'd never let her go through something as horrid as that ever again.

Due to the fact that if it were to happen again, he wasn't sure if he could ever handle seeing her in such a helpless state, when she'd usually be the one to help and raise others to their feet.

So, to imagine her in a condition worse than that, was neigh impossible for the Captain to even fathom.

Suddenly, Rex started to heave, it dawned to him that he had been short of breath as soon as he had entered the command centre.

_What's happening to me?_

Both of his hands shot out and grabbed the edge of the console table, trying to stabilize his body, as he felt more and more unstable, the more he tried to take in bigger gulps of breath.

Flashing through his eyes were just mental images of the many sights of his previous battles, all flying through as if someone had chucked a projector in his brain and decided to play through all the horrors that he has endured through the majority of the war.

Explosions, outnumbered in battles, fallen Republic fighters, watching the medics flail in desperation as more and more of his brothers succumb to his wound.

But none had hit harder as the last image that flashed through his mind.

His Commander, Ahsoka, laying as still as a statue, cradled by what her now realizes are his own hands.

The eyes that were usually open, bright, and a magnificent spark of azure, now shut with the spark surrounding it slowly dimming into nothingness.

He could practically feel his heart pounding, as if a prisoner wanting to break free of its cage.

And he felt as if it were about to do just that, before a sudden sensation engulfed his person out of absolutely nothing, before a voice rang out, sounding so distant, yet so powerfully close.

_Breath Rex… I'm here. Feel my presence as I feel yours. We are one with the Force, and the Force is with us._

In almost an instant, his breathing slowly stabilized it itself, returning to the pace and ease that he's so used to feeling. It wasn't, however, the end of ordeal as he could've sworn that there a hand ever so gently caressing his cheek, although nothing of physical form is anywhere near him, or his face.

The voice rung for a final time.

_That's my Captain… Don't worry Rexster. I'm on my way home soon enough._

_Was that?_

Shaking his head, he cleared his mind out of the flashing images, with the view of the command centre slowly returning to his vision.

Not even a few seconds later, another voice had called out. This time, Rex was sure that it was actually coming from somewhere close.

"Rex, you okay vod?"

Turning towards the entrance of the command centre, he saw Fives standing there, concern etched on the features of his face.

"Yeah… I'm fine." He really wasn't. But he also wasn't just about to tell his friend that he just essentially had an episode of hallucination. Especially not during the conditions that were being applied in the situation. He might as well be pulled from the frontlines if his condition is unstable. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the bunks?"

"Was about to, but I saw the General go to the ship lookin pretty upset." Fives mentioned while pointing a thumb towards the general direction, "Figured you wouldn't be doing any better."

The ARC stopped for a while to observe the Captain, before stepping closer, "Can't say I was wrong as well, you look terrible. The General give you a good shout?"

Rex sighed almost forlornly, replaying the short interaction he had with the distraught General, "On the contrary. He barely said anything." He settled on the edge of the holotable while Fives propped a hand next to him, "Just a grunt and he left. General Kenobi relays his and the General's gratitude to you and Echo."

"That's all? Then what's keepin you down?" Fives had been expecting the Captain to have endured a huge reprimand from the General, not that he had expected it, seeing as the General rarely does that.

"It's… nothing." Rex immediately shot the subject down. He promptly stood up, grabbed his helmet, and made way for the entrance, not wanting to talk about it any further. This didn't go by unnoticed by the ARC who moved in front of the Captain.

"Rex, you know I can tell when things aren't right." The fact that the man he's blocking isn't even looking him in the eyes, it further confirms his intuitions, "You can talk about it, you know?"

Normally, Rex finds no problems in accommodating whatever problems his brothers want to talk about, and vice versa. But unfortunately for Fives, his choice of words only triggered another piece of memory within Rex's mind.

"_You're important to me Rexster. You got a problem or even just anything on your mind, talk about it with me anytime, got it?"_

Steeling himself once again, he arrived into a state of resolution where he decided that he would need to sort this out on his own, before all these thoughts get out of hand.

And until then, he has to make sure that no one would be able to interfere with said process.

"I'm _fine_, Fives." Rex proceeded to step past his friend, once again placing his mind back into soldier-mode, while Fives can only stare at his good friend, before sighing in resignation and followed the Captain with a fleeting thought.

"Kriffing hell…" Fives muttered to no one in particular, before looking up, "Where's Ahsoka when you need her?"

* * *

Ahsoka Tano had always prided herself in assisting others when they need it. Whether it be tending to those that are wounded, assisting those in trouble in the battlefield, all the usual help she would give with no second thought.

But more than that, she strives to always try her best to be there for the people who needs her, or someone in general. And more often than not, her senses have developed a sense of detection of when spirits are dampening around her, and she makes it her mission to correct that.

Which is why when even after three weeks since her return from the Trandoshan camp, it frustrates her to no end to still not been able to figure out her Captain's peculiar mood. Albeit she had a bit of an idea, but it didn't seem to be in any use for her efforts of dealing with him.

Her return had been celebrated by all. Her Master had set time aside for her to reacquaint with members of the squad that she had missed dearly. Fives, Echo, and Denal had given her their fair share of hugs. Jesse and Hardcase had elated tears streaming out of their sockets, Coric and Kix insisted that they give her a complete medical check up to ensure the eradication of any possible injuries and infections. Obi-Wan had come welcoming back as soon as he returned to the temple, and even Wolffe spared a bit of time to check up on her before his deployment with the 104th.

Despite all that, she couldn't help but have her joy be dampened by the fact that the man she had missed the most, aside from her own Master that is, did nothing more than a simple welcome back, a brief hug, which was strained at best, and left the group early to attend to an urgent mission briefing, as he so eloquently put it. What's more is that her lightsabers, which Denal had informed that the Captain had kept safe for her, was only returned neatly placed in her quarters with a small note from the rest of the 501st.

Even as she stood next to her Master in the middle of the council room, none of the briefing that the Jedi Masters are currently providing managed to come close to breaking her current train of thoughts.

It was only when Plo Koon took notice of the Padawan's distant look did he decide to make an inquiry on her condition.

"Is there something wrong, little 'Soka?"

The nickname had fortunately successfully shaken her out of her trance. She spared a look towards her own Master, who had both a concerned and questioning glance adorned on his features, before deviating her attention towards the inquiring Jedi Master.

"Nothing, Master Plo." She said half-heartedly, making up an excuse through the only part of the briefing that she had heard before losing her focus, "I've just never heard of the system were being assigned to before."

A hum of acknowledgement came from Yoda himself, "Mysterious, the Selvaris system is. Know much of it, we do not." Yoda gestured to her, "Tread carefully, you must."

Nodding respectfully, Ahsoka replied, "We will Master."

What she had missed was the quizzical looks that Obi-Wan, Yoda, Plo Koon, and Windu had shared with each other, before the four looked at Anakin, who had shared the same expression as they did. Clearly noticing the Padawan's lack of focus.

But before anyone was able to make any remark on it, Obi-Wan had interjected, "Anakin, I trust that you can continue the preparations without our further assistance?" subtlety nodding towards the uncharacteristically inattentive Togrutan. Which Anakin picked up on, immediately.

"Uhh… yeah. We'll get right to it." Anakin made a move for the door, ushering his apprentice along, "Come on Snips. Let's gather the boys."

Ahsoka was about to follow suit before Plo Koon remarked, "May the Force be with you little 'Soka."

With a thin smile plastered on her lips, Ahsoka quaintly replied, "May the Force be with you too, Master Plo."

As Ahsoka passed her Master, Anakin spared another glance to his own Master, who had an eyebrow raised in question of her behaviour which Anakin could only answer with a shrug, before following his Padawan out of the council room.

For the entirety of the way towards the barracks, Anakin kept his eyes on her at all times, and ended up surprising himself with the fact that she both hadn't noticed his curious eyes on her, and she didn't utter a single word during that period, which prompted Anakin to suddenly steer her away from the path to the barracks into a small and secluded balcony just a few hundred meters from their destination. And his confusion was furthered by the fact that she hadn't even noticed or uttered a single remark on the change of course, further pressing Anakin to really find out what was going on in her head.

He guided her towards a nearby bench, before simply saying, "Sit."

Once again, she said nothing and simply took a seat on the bench. Her body hunching over her feet. Seeing her in that state reminded him of when they had just finished taking out the shield generator back in Christophsis, signifying to him that she had a massive dilemma on her mind.

Right after he sat next to her, he began asking, "What's gotten into you today?"

Then, for the first time in the span of the day, she finally looked up and for once actually looked like her mind had been with her.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" that was when she finally realized that they were definitely not walking anymore, and they are most definitely _not _in the barrack, "Wait… this isn't the barracks."

"Ya think? Honestly, with how distant you were, you'd be in Selvaris right now and you wouldn't notice."

"Don't you mean we?" she commented on his choice of vocabulary.

"Uhh… no? You do know that I'm not coming along for this one, right?" he had initially thought that she simply forgotten, but judging by her eyes that momentarily bugged out, he'd come to realize that she hadn't known, "Wait, just how much of that briefing did you hear?"

"Umm… we're going to Selvaris?" Ahsoka had timidly replied, with her Master waving his hand, urging her to continue, "And we are to… take out a… Seppie… base?"

All she received from Anakin was a deadpanned expression, which he followed through with a facepalm, "Force, your mind really was elsewhere huh? Even I never had a time where I was ever that incoherent."

An indignant squawk came out of her mouth, "First off all, Master Kenobi would probably beg to differ." She then pointed at himself, "Second. You've probably skipped briefings entirely. I've never done that!"

"Whatever. That wasn't the point, and don't try to change the subject on me," His voiced had been playful for the previous sentence, but changed to a more heartfelt and sincere tone when he placed a hand on her shoulder, "What's going on, Snips? You're not one to just doze off during briefings. That's my job. If there's something bothering you, you shouldn't hold it back from me."

She appreciated the fact that he had tried to keep the question light-hearted and was glad that it had somewhat of an effect to her comfort.

"I don't know Master… I'm not even sure how it all started." Her mind had once again wandered towards the Captain, while Anakin tried his best to piece a helping sentence together, and a part of him began to upset himself when he had thought that the ordeal that she had gone through in the previous weeks still had a lasting effect on her, as he had considered it to be a failure of duty in his part to protect her.

"Did it come from when you were taken to that Trandoshan camp?"

Feeling the anger rising from her Master, she was quick to deny his hypothesis. But a lingering thought made her consider the event as an underlying aspect of this new issue that she's having.

"No…" she started answering with that, simply to alleviate some of her Master's anger, before trudging to the next part of her explanation, "But it might've indirectly been the cause of this… predicament."

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" Anakin had lost his anger, but confusion in multiplicity had taken its place, "What sort of problem are you having?"

"Well…" she started rubbing both of her arms in uncertainty, not sure of the how she would bring it up to her Master, "It's not exactly _my _problem per say."

"Then who's…" Anakin was about to ask even further when he had noticed that her eyes had been focused on entirely different direction than before. He decided to follow her line of sight, before realizing that it had been pointing to the general direction of the barracks.

Which is when he understood who she had been referring to.

"Oh… I see." Anakin then mimicked her hunched gesture as he also took his eyeline towards the direction of the barracks, "You noticed Rex too huh?"

"Hold up, that's _my _line!" Ahsoka perked up, registering Anakin's question. "When and how did you notice?"

"Like a week ago, in that Horain skirmish?"

"Tough luck Skyguy…" Ahsoka admonished, "I've noticed ever since I came back. Which is why I think that might have something to do with it."

"Well, I only thought about it when Obi-Wan had told me to follow Master Windu's directions in Horain." Anakin stared ahead, reminiscing in the particular confusion that he had during said battle, "Master Windu had told us to follow a very strict path that would ensure our company's safety, but would limit our ability to help the other companies."

"Yeesh…" Ahsoka winced. Knowing full well that her good Captain loathes deserting others, "Rex didn't like that, did he?"

"Yeah. _Normally_. He wouldn't." Anakin made sure to put extra emphasis on the "normally", "Normally, I would've relayed it to him, and he'd usually be able to come up with an alternative that can help us do both. I didn't expect him to just say "Yes Sir" and went along without having much more of a thought on that strategy."

"Crap… it's gone deeper than I thought." She knew for a fact that if the Captain ever had any bad days, he'd usually shut down and revert to mechanically becoming a soldier. Usually, it meant that he'd be in his private quarters, if he was given one, doing paperwork all night long while she tries her best to get him out of it, which normally yields a satisfying result with him putting his work down and joining her to trudge around the vicinity. But if it had been happening on the battlefield, that's one predicament that she hadn't had the unfortunate chance of encountering, but she knew it was a problem, nonetheless.

Because a shut-down Rex equals to a Torrent company, stripped off its esteemed effectiveness and integrity.

But more than that, it equals to a Rex devoid of any freedom of thought.

Which is something that she always enforced the Captain to have, even if he considered himself unworthy of having that privilege, as he had once put it, before realizing that it wasn't a privilege, yet it was something that any being should inherently have as their natural rights. Whether it be man, or clone.

Her trance had been broken by Anakin nudging her on the shoulder, asking, "I've told you what made me notice. Now, care to share your piece on the trade?"

"Ugh, you sound like Master Kenobi." Ahsoka smirked at her Master's cringing expression, but she appreciated it nonetheless. She knew that he had been trying to be much more open to discussing personal matters ever since she had returned from her ordeal, and being Jedis, they were restricted by the inherent codes when it comes to emotions and dealing with them. That, and coupled with the fact that she knew he was trying his best not to be as overprotective as he had been before, she couldn't blame him for slipping into his former Master's method of approach.

Passing through the small moment, Ahsoka took a deep a breath as she began reviewing the previous weeks.

"First thing I noticed was during that reunion." She spared a grateful glance at Anakin, "You know, the one that you had ever so graciously set up for me?"

"What can I say?" He replied while leaning further back on the bench with a smug expression, "Can't help the fact that I am a very generous man."

"Hey! Pay attention. It's my turn to share." She swatted his knee, which he only replied with laughter, before her tone returned to the slightly dejected tone she had been using before, "I'm surprised you missed it honestly. He was never quite there with the group, he felt off the entire time, and barely said anything when he left practically halfway through the entire thing."

With no comment coming from Anakin, she took it as a sign to keep going, "Then there's these past three weeks. He practically avoided me. He'd stopped joining me on the downtime strolls that I'd usually take through the _Resolute_, we rarely discuss strategies together anymore, even Denal had asked me about it the other day."

She let out a resigned sigh, wondering what had happened during her absence, "I don't know what I did wrong Master. It's just… somewhat depressing. I mean, I'm grateful for you and Master Kenobi, the boys and all; I really am, but regardless of how uplifting things has been, I couldn't help but still feel a bit… lonely."

Throughout her venting, Anakin carefully observed his Padawan. He knew that the Captain and his Commander had a good relationship, probably better than that and he had encouraged it as well. But more than that he knew just how much the two had become friends, how much they trusted each other, and how deep their bond could go. Some parts of him would even argue that Rex probably knew her better than he did, seeing as clones does not have the barriers that Jedis have when it comes to emotions. And Rex's reactions throughout her return simply clarified that.

Despite all that, there is one thing about her that he now knew for sure, which is solidified by what his former Master had been repeatedly stating throughout the tenure of the exhausting war.

_Sometimes, I don't think you realized how alike you two have become._

And if his own personal experience is anything to go by, he couldn't help but think about how the things might pan out for his right-hand man and his ever-loyal apprentice. Especially when he considered his own personal affairs as any sort of indicator to a possible branch within the relationship.

However, he smiled to himself, knowing full well that whatever it is that amounts from their bond, nothing that the Code nor the Council dictate, would ever prevent him from being there for them.

_Oh, Padme's going to get a kick out of this._

Realizing that the two of them had spent a few minutes in contemplative silence, Anakin cleared his throat to break them both out of their reverie.

"Then take this mission as an opportunity talk to him." He grinned as she looked at him with anticipation, "I've assigned Rex, Fives, and a squad of clones for you to take to Selvaris. At least without a battalion to worry about, you guys would have ample time to talk things through with one another, right?"

"Wait, what? I thought this was a council mission." Ahsoka inquired, forgetting the fact that she completely zoned out during the briefing, "Why am I bringing a squad, let alone Rex and Fives?"

Anakin gave her a momentary look of confusion as he had done many times that day, before recalling the briefing earlier, "Right… you got close to nothing out of that briefing."

Ahsoka gave her Master a sheepish smile, which was replied with a roll of his eyes as he prepared to reexplain everything she had missed.

"Long story short, Master Windu thinks that the Separatists has been utilizing some of the systems in the wild space region to experiment with their weapons." Anakin shrugged at the quizzical eyebrow raised by his Padawan, "Just a theory so far, but with how the war is going, Master Yoda suggest that we take precautions. So, he's assigning you and the men to setup a hidden listening post on Selvaris, since it's quite centralized within the wild space. That way, any signal or energy-based activity that occurs anywhere near it will be detected and can be investigated."

"Huh…" Thinking the mission through, Ahsoka still finds that it seems like such an unnecessary amount of troop power for said mission, so she thought there were more to what he's saying, "So, what's the catch?"

"The catch?" Anakin's amused expression came forth, "Is there supposed to be a catch?"

"Well for a mission that doesn't seem to require strength, wouldn't two ARCs be a bit of an overkill for a crew?"

"Not at all. We'll need their strategic vision and knowledge of reconnaissance to make sure that the outpost would be out of any unwanted attention." Anakin informed with certainty. "That, and just in case that there are Separatist experiments laying around, you'd have at least enough of a force to either neutralize it, or retreat from it."

Right as his sentence ended, he can visibly see her hesitate. As if trying to gauge the situation. He decided to give her better assurance, "Hey, it's going to be okay. Rex's not one to defer from listening to reason. He'll come around."

She smiled at his statement, knowing that Rex is not one to ignore listening to logic. Even when they had just first met in Christophsis, he thoughtfully considered her suggestions of moving the canons, even when it was obvious that it was her first time being in a battlefield, before respectfully rejecting it as moving them would be against the strategy that her Master had set for the battle.

Still, she couldn't help but have the lingering feeling of doubt just stuck in the back of her mind, which Anakin had felt through the Force.

"Besides, you'll have Fives to back you up! He'll be glad to take care of things while you two sort it out."

"Ah yes. Wouldn't that be a splendid idea? Make the man who never read the regs in his life take care of a vital outpost construction." The two chuckled at her remark, Anakin also remembering how many basic procedures the now ARC trooper had forgotten, she then continued, "I'd be a bit more convinced if Echo were to come along. The two may be inseparable, but they're polar-opposites when it comes to the regs."

"That was the plan." Anakin replied, recollecting what he had planned, "But Master Ti mentioned that at least one of them is required to oversee the development of their new armour in Kamino at the moment, so I was made to choose either one of them to call in."

Ahsoka hummed in understanding. It makes more sense for Fives to be called in seeing as he knew his way around terrain better than Echo is. That, and the fact that he has the better chance of talking to the Captain with no filter, therefore increasing her chances of actually figuring out her Captain's predicament.

_He'd actually thought this through, hasn't he?_

"Course I have Snips." Anakin smirked at her surprised expression. Which quickly turned into a scoff.

"Not even gonna bother with asking how you knew."

"Then I've taught you well, my Padawan." With that, he stood up and beckons her to come along, "Now come on. Supplies and construction units for the outpost should be done loading up on the frigate soon. Unless there's something else you want to add?"

Carefully appraising his question, Ahsoka was tempted to just tell him about the moment of anxiety that she had felt from the Captain when she was still in the Trandoshan camp. But she figured that keeping that ordeal from her Master will help her chances with consoling Rex if he could appreciate her sentiment.

So, she chose to keep it at bay.

"Don't think so." She replied with added confidence to assure him as he nodded and began walking, "Right behind you Master."

Within minutes, they have arrived in the entrance of the barracks. They immediately noticed Rex and Fives alongside a squad of troopers, a batch of which they don't seem to recognize.

As they got closer, many in the batch began to take notice, and a quick bout of whispering in-between themselves, all of them formed up on each other and saluted the two of them.

"General, Commander." The trooper at the very front of the pack had postulated.

Rex and Fives shared a look with the two Jedis, who both had amused expressions before Anakin replied, "At ease, men. I assume that you've had your briefings?"

"Informed and ready for duty, General." Another trooper in the pack had replied.

"Good." Anakin commented, before gesturing towards their two commanding officers, "You can go on ahead to the transport. Your Captain will join you in just a moment."

Distracted by the squad's nods and salutes, Anakin had missed the slightly inquisitive stare that Rex had thrown at him for a split second. He managed to get rid of said stare just in time as Anakin turned his attention to them.

"An unusual bunch." Anakin had remarked, referring to the fact that he hadn't really recognize any of them, "Should I have remembered them in some way?"

"Negative, General." Rex began replying, looking towards the group of clones that's making their way to the frigate, "A squad of shinies. Commander Blitz thinks that this will be a good mission to start them off of their feet. Hence the assignment to our squad."

Anakin merely shrugged at the notion, "Alright then. Rex, Fives. You have points on this mission. Scout the area and make sure that the outpost is virtually seamless." Anakin had said, before crossing his arms, "The council's been hounding me over this deployment, so get the job done as up to a tee as possible, got it?"

"You got it, General." Fives had spoken out, clenching a fist in passion, "Those clankers will have to have seen us build the thing to have a chance of finding it."

"That's what I like to hear." The Skywalker replied before gesturing to Ahsoka, "Ahsoka will brief you on the rest of the mission."

Ahsoka glared at a smug Anakin who managed to conjure a wink unnoticed by the two clones, before turning towards the temple, and calling out, "Good luck boys, I'll hear about the outpost in a few days. I'll expect some good progress by then."

"Consider it done, General." Rex replied with his usual degree of formality.

A firm nod from the Jedi Knight was the last thing he did before leaving the group to their own devices. And what that had meant was an awkward teenage Togrutan standing around unsure of what to do, while a blonde clone stood idly by the barrack entrance, and the other clone tries to piece a conversation together.

"So… Commander." Fives had begun after clearing his throat, "Anything else that the two of us should know about the mission?"

"Uhh… not much else honestly." She tried to wiggle her way out of the question, but the amused stares that both of them were giving her was enough to make her crack. "Alright fine. I was a bit distracted during the briefing okay. Barely got anything in my head."

"Must be a big distraction." Rex commented dryly, still looking towards the door, "You're not one to lose focus during briefings."

_You're the big distraction you stubborn idiot, _she had thought, trying to formulate an excuse that wouldn't cause him to become suspicious. "We all have our off days Rex."

_You've been off for weeks and no one's had the gall to ask you about it._

A small hum escaped his tight lips. As if he's trying hard to hide his amusement, another change that Ahsoka had sorely noticed from the Captain's demeanour. In normality, she would've expected a teasing remark, or anything of a playful joke to have come out of him.

The lack of that aspect just serves to further discomfort her.

Before any of them were able to say anything else, Rex suddenly grunted towards the door, "Where are those two?" before going back into the barracks without much of a preamble. Leaving Ahsoka and Fives on their own.

As they watched the man disappear inside, Ahsoka asked, "Who's the unlucky two?"

"Denal and Kix." Fives sighed, fully turning to the Togrutan for the first time that evening, "When he found out that they were giving us a bunch of shinies, he wants Denal to make sure that he's there to keep them in line, and Kix is the only one bossy enough to babysit them without having to be told."

"Huh, fair enough." Ahsoka replied after some thought. She had noticed the same downcast look that she's had on Fives's features, but before she had any chance of asking about it, the entrance to the barracks had opened up once again, revealing a rowdy-looking Denal, and an exasperated Kix. Not that there is any other mood that you would normally find the medic in.

"What is this mission again?" Denal asked, followed by a yawn. Clearly unprepared to join in the mission, "Reading that datapad really didn't inform me much of anything."

"Read it? You barely opened it." Kix had interjected. Carrying whatever personal tools and medical equipment that he was able to gather in the short time of notice, "It's a simple supervision work. We're overseeing the construction of a listening post in Selvaris."

"Well excuse me." Denal shot back with a slight edge to his voice, "I would've had more time to read it if someone wasn't making me look for their bacta patches."

"It's a short brief! How long does it take for you to-"

"Alright. Settle down boys." Ahsoka cuts in, noticing how the commotion is slowly starting to irk the Captain more and more, "The guys in the frigate are waiting for us. You can read more about it in the ship, Denal."

A groan of finality escaped from the Lieutenant as they all began making their way to the transport, and even from there, Ahsoka noticed the discrepancies that had formed from the previous weeks. Usually, Ahsoka would've already sidled up to the Captain who would've gestured for her to fall in line with him, yet what she has now is a Captain who is distantly ahead of their group, while Ahsoka and Fives followed loosely behind him while Denal and Kix continued their argument behind them.

"Strange. I don't recall the two of you having a fight." Fives suddenly commented out of nowhere.

"Hmm? W-Who's having a fight?" was the stuttered reply that Ahsoka had managed to let out.

"Ya kidding me?" Fives gave a bemused glance to his Commander, before nodding towards her and the silent man walking ahead of them. "I'm not blind, Commander. I can tell when things aren't right in paradise."

"Paradise? Really? I'm still your Commander, Fives." she tried to sound firm, but the quaver of laughter that she had tried to hold back managed to slip through her lips, ensuring Fives that she knew that he's playing with her, "You're lucky I need you for this or I would've written you up for it."

An amused laugh escaped the ARC, before he gestured to the frigate, trying to gesture towards the mission, "Need me for that?" and then gesturing towards the Captain ahead of them, "Or need me for that?"

"Both." She replied with a bit of mirth, before Fives gave her another propitious stare and she added up, "Alright. Probably way more towards the latter huh?"

"Well for _that_ particular matter, I don't think I would be much of use." Fives remarked with a hint of regret, "With all due respect, I don't think anyone can make him budge. Except for you, Commander."

"You give me too much credit, Fives. I've been trying for three weeks, not a single crack." Ahsoka growled in frustration, trying to keep her tone in check while Fives looked on curiously, "He's not like Master Skywalker. It's really easy to predict what he'd be upset about. Say if he's being impatient and unnecessarily cross; it's a Senator Amidala related issue. If he's being much more aggressive than usual, that means Master Kenobi had barred him from doing something he had really wanted to do beforehand."

Fives listened with intent, initially because she had mentioned his General's rumoured relationship, which everyone in the garrison had heard about. But he was also intent on figuring on what's been bugging his good friend even though he had a pretty solid idea of what it's all about.

"But Rex… I still can't figure him out." Ahsoka admonished, now having her vision more focused on the ground, "Easy is when he's upset about losing men. That's pretty self-explanatory, comforting him is what I always do, but there are times where he's just… difficult."

"Excluding now, what happened the other time?" Fives had asked. Not that he hadn't knew what those other times are, but he wanted to try and make her connect the dots by herself.

"Well… the first one I can think off is way back when we were destroying Grievous's listening post. He was pretty silent for the following week." Ahsoka then paused, recollecting her memories, "The most recent one would probably be right after the Citadel. He was being pretty grumpy about it for some reason."

Fives just about prevented himself from stiffening up like a frozen Jakrab when he heard that statement. He had recalled what made the Captain incredibly upset that day. Aside from Echo losing his hand that is. No, he was more upset about Tarkin, the officer that they had managed to rescue after going through all that trouble, and the complaints that Rex had, he delivered through a furious whisper.

"_One more word from that karking Captain on the Commander, I'd space him with no hesitation."_

As his Commander kept going on her spiel of not being able to figure the Captain out, Fives slowly dove through his own thoughts. Barely registering what she's saying and just staying engulfed within the connections that he's made in his mind. He knew just how close the two had grown to become, and he knew that they both have an effect on each other. Hence his statement of no one being able to make the Captain budge other than herself, but even he knew that with how Rex had been acting, it was something that ran just a tad bit deeper than that.

And for all he knows, and as he's said before, that there is no cracking that barrier unless you're a feisty Togrutan who's had her fair share of dealing with his numbskull of a head.

"I want to talk about it to him Fives. I really do." Ahsoka's voice had finally ended his trance, snapping him back to reality, "But I don't know how else to approach him. He's barred himself off the Rex he usually is."

"Well, how do you usually approach him?" Fives inquired, trying to form a comprehensible method for her to follow, "As much as he's steeled himself off, he's not fully shut off himself off has he?"

"No, but he's getting there." She replied, thinking to what her Master had said, "Even Master Skywalker is noticing. And you know how dense the guy can be at times."

Fives winced at her comment. As great as a General Skywalker is, Fives agrees that the man can sometimes be extremely dense when it comes to situations such as this. So, him noticing is a definite sign of just how far the Captain had veered off from his usual veneer.

But Fives was still sticking to his guns, knowing full well that the Commander is still the best shot that they have at this.

"Well then, just try talking to him. You haven't really had the time to actually settle him down, right?"

"True. Besides the fact that he's obviously avoiding me, we have been pretty split during out last few weeks in battle." Ahsoka had agreed, recalling the fact even though they were task with the same battles, they had completely different operations over the past weeks, hence the separation in positioning. "But what if he's upset with me? What will I do then? I don't even know what I've done wrong."

"I can assure you Commander; he's never upset with you." Fives had replied with confidence, before an inquisitive stare forced him to relent, "Alright, maybe once or twice, but he's usually more upset about things that are in relation to you."

"What does that mean?' she shot back with confusion.

"Take this way." Fives began his justification, "You and the General aren't what we can exactly call, the _safest _pair of people in the battlefield." He waited for her to nod in understanding before continuing, "As much as he and the rest of us had learned to change the word "reckless" into "intuitive", we still somewhat wish that you two haven't taken as many risks just to ensure a safer plan for us clones."

"But I'm sure you're all accustomed to it by now, right? Why still worry about the results?" Ahsoka had asked with concern, initially thinking that they still doubt her abilities.

"Hence why I said that we've learned." Fives said calmly, trying to keep her in the same level as he is, "It does stop Rex from worrying about results, that, you've shown time and time again, but it wouldn't be enough to stop _him _from worrying about the General's, and more specifically, _your _safety."

"But why? You all risk your lives just as much, if not more, for us. Wouldn't it be an equal sort of thing?" she remarked, still confusion heavily laced in her voice.

It was at this time that Fives decided that she should at least have an idea of the true reasoning that he thinks has been driving the Captain of the rails for the last few weeks.

"Because Ashoka, and I'm only going to say this once,"

The usage of her name had brought her attention back in full force, knowing that Fives is now speaking less as an ARC trooper, but more as a friend. Which is exactly what she had been needing and missing from her Captain.

"I don't think you know just how much of an effect you have on him. And that you should use this as an opportunity to see just how much he's willing to go through for you."

Well.

Unexpected would probably be an understatement to how she had felt when he had said it all.

She knew that under all that playfulness there was something that Fives had always rarely shown to others; his astute observations of individuals and the emotions surrounding them, and just how well he can break it down for others to understand.

Yet to hear such a confounding declaration, it surprised her just how damning it was that it had managed to fully eliminate her ability to reply.

And here she thought that she had all the pieces; she really thought she had. But here she is having her carefully placed thoughts be absolutely trashed by just one singular revelation.

Not only that, but she must've had her astonishment written clearly one her face, since Fives immediately took her silence as a sign to let her absorb that piece of information and process it for her own mind to comprehend.

So much so, all she could do as they cover the rest of the distance to the frigate was stare at the back of Rex's head as she can only think; _what had Fives meant, Rex?_.

After a few minutes of loading up the rest of their gears, the frigate then promptly made went on its long journey to the wild space region of Selvaris. Almost a day of straight flying, as the officer on deck had informed them.

The first half of the flight had been filled with a rather unnoticeably yet rather eerie silence. Ahsoka found herself avoiding the Captain as much as he had been avoiding her, and unbeknownst to her, it hadn't gotten all that unnoticed as she had hoped it would be.

"Is there something wrong with the Captain and the Commander?"

Denal looked across his table in the mess room, finding Tightrope, one of the shinies, had taken a seat with a look of concern.

"What makes you say that?" Denal had found it surprising on just how much he was avoiding looking at the trooper in the eyes, indirectly voicing his own uncertainties that the shiny hadn't seem to catch.

"Is just that… me and the boys had heard a lot about Captain Rex and Commander Tano." He started to tell, Denal silently looking at the apprehensiveness of the trooper before he continued, "Best pair of commanding officers you can wish for they said, work together very well in the battlefield. And always a role model for the men."

"That they are, trooper." Denal replied with a bit of pride, knowing full well of just how far the reputation of that duo had reached. Especially now with Fives and Echo being in the ranks of Kamino, it just serves to further solidify that claim. "As their lieutenant, I can attest to that."

"Then how come does it look like they'd rather space themselves rather than talk to each other?"

"What?" Denal had been oblivious to the tension that had grown in the room as he took a quick scan, and immediately found the source.

A sight he had rarely; or had never even seen beforehand, with the Commander taking her seat on the far right side of the room with Fives, who noticed his gaze and only shrugged dismissively, while Kix had the same look as he sat on the far left side alongside an unusually mute Rex.

He sighed at the view, wondering if it'll ever resolve itself before turning back to tightrope. "Trust me, it never usually looked like this. But they're having a bit of a… rough patch to say the least."

Before Tightrope was able to comment on it, Denal had continued speaking. "But I can assure that if you mess with either one of them; and this applies to your whole squad, Sergeant." Denal gestured to his squad, "Expect the other one to come charging back at you with no mercy. Understood, trooper?"

Tightrope visibly gulped, nodded, and began eating his meal without any more preamble.

Satisfied with the Sarge's response, Denal internally let out a sigh of relief. Grateful that he had acted confidently enough to the point where he looked like he knew more than he had let on, when in reality, he knew almost next to nothing of the predicament that's occurring between his Captain and the Commander.

And it didn't help his confusion with the fact that the two has passed each other as they exited the room and didn't even spare so much as a glance to one another.

Even from when he's sitting, he could hear the simultaneous sigh that Fives and Kix had released from their seats.

Ahsoka however, did not let it get by unnoticed.

She knew that she is obviously avoiding the Captain.

She knew that everyone had noticed.

Yet despite all that, she still can't for the life of her figure out what her next steps are going to be.

The frigate had gone quiet, safe for the sound of the occasional officers going from the front into the back of the ship and vice versa. All the other occupants had gone to sleep, waiting for the ship's arrival at their destination.

Sleep, however, had evaded her person. Leaving to her to go wandering towards the rest of ship, where Ahsoka suddenly found herself sat at the frigate's observatory room. Albeit that there was not much to look at other than the hyperspace tunnel that they were travelling through; she still found it relaxing to look at something flowing in a constant, and calming manner.

Unlike the cacophony of chaos that her mind's currently going through.

Taking a seat on the bench outlooking towards the outside world, she slowly let herself sink into the dull sensation that space was giving her. Effectively losing track of time and letting her eyes droop ever so slightly before a voice caused them to shoot right back open.

"I don't recommend getting too comfortable in that position, Commander."

Normally she wouldn't even need to turn to know who the person was, but she just had to make sure that her mind hadn't fallen asleep on her just yet as she turned to see none other than the man that had been occupying her mind for the better part of the previous weeks.

"Rex…"

"Can't sleep?" he had asked. Voice sounding like his usual gruff self, albeit with a calmer tone underlaying it.

She watched as he moved next to the bench, carefully gauging his being. As soon she was sure that he wasn't just passing by, she averted her attention back to the azure ocean of space in front of her, trying to get her voice to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Got a lot in my mind. Nothing unusual there huh?"

"Maybe. Never took you as one to keep it in you though." Rex commented, then gestured to the empty space on the other edge of the bench, "May I?"

Ahsoka nodded and kept a tracking eye on him as she gave a small wave of permission, which was followed by him taking his seat and proceeded to gaze into the same view as she had been doing.

Silence befell them as they settled on this border of comfort and awkwardness. At least, that's what Ahsoka had felt. She was using the time to appraise the Captain. Slowly searching through his being with the Force, trying to find anything that could clue her in on what exactly is going through his mind, only to find nothing but dull and stagnant waves of… neutrality. As if he had barred himself of feeling anything other than plain innocuous emotions.

And it just serves to further sadden her.

But it also gave her hope. Even with such barriers, he's still willing to take a chance on his own thoughts and keep her company at such a time, seeing as for as long as she could remember, he's always the one being there for her whenever she needs a shoulder to lean on, or just as someone to talk to.

She couldn't help but feel just how much she had _missed _those small interactions and found herself indulging herself in this small yet significant activity.

A small sigh of relief escaped her lips as she stretched her legs and felt somewhat relaxed for the first time in a few weeks and blurted out, "I've missed this."

Without even looking, she felt the stare he held on her. His initial feeling of confusion that she had felt slowly turned into what she felt as acceptance before she heard him sigh in a similar fashion and muttered out, "Yeah. Me too, kid."

Caught off guard, yet not wanting to lose momentum, Ahsoka used the opportunity to press the matter.

"What happened to us Rex? You and me." She relayed. Surprised by the heaviness that had suddenly laced her voice, "Did I do something wrong? We usually talk. Those cargo hold conversations, our _Resolute _strolls… I miss them, Rexster."

The nickname rolled off without much a thought her part. And it surprised her when he visibly flinched at the utterance of it, prompting her to try and fix it, thinking that she had pushed it a bit too far, "Sorry, Rex. I shouldn't-"

"No… Ahsoka. You have nothing to apologize for. I recognized that I've been rather… distant, lately." Her head bolted right back at his direction at the sound of her name, and for just that moment, Ahsoka can finally see the true expressions of the man that she had missed, the real Rex. "Just been doing a lot of thinking as well."

She had wanted to further emphasize what he had meant as "distant". No. Distant is not talking for a few days and then coming back to your usual self with a little bit of an explanation. What he had been doing can be classified as a full-on shutdown. But she chose to keep it all in as she kept her gaze at him.

"Want to talk about it?'

Rex gave a humourless chuckle, uncertainty heavily implied within his tone. His gazed locked with hers, "Not now… and I can't guarantee a when either."

As much as it had disappointed her that she still hasn't done enough in order to put him in a comfortable situation to speak his mind, she was glad at the progress. Albeit little, it was still somewhat of a start in cracking the giant iceberg that is Captain Rex.

His tone had been the one to worry her, and it further shows within his body language. Rex is usually confident and full assurance. She had observed that he has a slight crook to his current posture, and his expressions are just all the more reason for her desperations. So sullen, and devoid of any positivity.

It was taking everything within her to not just close the gap between them and grab his hand, shoulder, anything of contact.

Because as much as he looked like he needed it, she knows damn well that she needs it more.

An assurance that their relationship isn't in tatters.

Not as Commander and Captain.

But as Rex and Ahsoka.

Not wanting to let their conversation end at that, Ahsoka observed his gaze a little more before replying. "Well whenever that time comes…" she shot a quick, yet genuine smile to further push her point, "And I mean whenever, Rex. I'd be there to hear all about it, okay?"

Rex averted his anxious gaze to the floor, "That might take a while. What's in here right now-" he pointed to his head, "-Is pretty heavy… from my perspective, at least."

"Then I'll shoulder it." She replied with no hesitation and a slight beam, which she had hoped that Rex had took as a full showcase of her sincerity, "No matter the weight."

To her surprise, Rex returned her smile in kind and softly said, "I know you will."

_Cause that's just who you are._ Were the words left unspoken.

Quietness then claimed its spot on the atmosphere once again. Only this time, there's more of a serenity to it than it had previously been. A sensation that she had always cherished whenever it came to place.

It didn't last long however, since not even ten minutes later Rex exhaled a slightly ragged breath and stood up to head towards the door. Casting a sideway glance to the apprehensive Togrutan, "Best to get some shut eye Commander. Selvaris is rumoured to be quite a tiring place to be in."

A small nod was all she could reply as he headed towards the door, before stopping just before the exit.

"Good night, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka blinked herself back into focus, unexpectant of the leave-taking words yet happy that he had said it.

"Sleep well, Rexster."

She observed his retreating figure as the door closed behind him, before sighing to herself and let the view in front of her take her mind once again.

Wondering just how much longer it would be to get through his walls.

* * *

The descent to Selvaris had been rather uneventful. Safe from having to constantly keep Fives and the squad and shinies from staring at the planet in amazement, the process of landing and unloading had respectively finished and begun without a hitch.

With the operation of building the outpost starting, the supervising squad had decided to set up camp. Making sure that the perimeter had been secured and creating a temporary watchtower to watch for danger, which the new squad had been unsure of its necessity.

"A watchtower Sir?" Tightrope had inquired.

"Yeah. The Captain finds it necessary to set one up." Fives replied without really thinking much of it.

"But… there are no recorded Seppies, Sir."

The rookie's protests brought upon a mischievous spark within Fives's mind who smirked and threw a hand over the Sergeant's shoulder, "Well. If you're so sure about not needing it then why don't you bring it up to the Captain yourself, hmm?"

"Err… sure." Tightrope eyed the ARC suspiciously, sensing something amiss but not quite knowing what it is that he has planned. Unfortunately for the unexperienced trooper, he had interpreted Fives's words as a challenge, flaring up his desire to prove himself. "I'll bring it up right now, actually."

Fives watched with amusement as the clone confidently walked up to the Captain who was in the middle of making sure that all the units for the listening post were up to speed and in good condition, while Ahsoka, who's been silently watching walked up to the snickering ARC.

"What'd you make him do?"

"Nothing, Commander." Fives replied with a grin still stuck on his lips, "The good Sergeant over there just thinks that the watchtower would be not of much use. I merely suggested that he should bring it up with the Captain."

"Did you now? I suppose you comfortably left out the part where new regs makes it so that any camp set up now are required to have one regardless of the location and resources available?"

"There's regs for that?" Fives gave an astounded stare at his Commander, genuinely having no previous knowledge about it, "I'd figured it was just mandatory since Orto Plotunia. You know, with the Talz and all?"

Ahsoka rolled her eyes in amusement of the ARC's train of thoughts. "Of course. Leave it to you to remember an incident almost three years ago, rather than regs that were issued quiet literally last week."

"You know me, Commander."

With a mischievous smile marring his lips, Ahsoka couldn't help but join him in observing as the trooper got closer and closer to the Captain, before Ahsoka realized that with the mood that Rex had been in, the trooper would probably get a bit more than the normal amount of gruff reprimand that he usually gives. She sighed as she turned to Fives once again.

"What's the Sergeant's name?"

"Hmm? Oh. Tightrope's his name."

"Well that's fitting." Ahsoka took a step forward, prepping to monitor the situation, "Cause he'll be on a bit of a tight rope when the Captain's done with him."

Fives took a moment to process what she had said before acknowledging the humour behind it, yelling out, "Ha! Nice one, Commander!"

Ahsoka merely gave a wave above her shoulders as she kept her eyes on her destination. Now noticing that the Sergeant had begun speaking with the Captain, who didn't seem all too please that his routine had been interrupted.

Being a Togrutan meant that she had been able to hear their conversation from a bit more of a distance once she focused her senses at their general direction, and it became quickly apparent that Rex was having none of the rookie's protests.

"If you are enervated Sergeant, then might as well get out with it. Don't try to reason yourself out of it with some bantha crap."

"Not at all, Captain. It's just…" Tightrope's voice had sounded much more strained, nerves evident in every word, "With no Seppies around, wouldn't it be a waste of resources?"

"Seppies or not, there are a lot more things that can be as, if not more, deadly than a bunch of droids, kid." Rex's tone had been sharp and straightforward. And as much as Ahsoka dislikes it when Rex had to raise his voice, which was fortunately rare, the newbie was really set up to lose the argument. "Having a vantage point in the base will for sure help us foresee any incoming danger. Regardless of its requirement in the first place."

"W-Well…" Tightrope was initially confident of his reasonings, but within seconds, the veteran Captain had squashed any sort of confidence that he had garnered, and is now stomping around it like a baby with its toys, "I-If you put it that way, Captain…"

Ahsoka decided that it was a good enough time to intervene, "All good here boys?"

"C-Commander Tano!" the Sergeant immediately snapped into form, while Rex merely gave her a quizzical glance before realizing that she had come to stop him from absolutely demolishing the trooper's spirit.

Knowing that he's realized it, she couldn't stop herself from shooting a short glare at the Captain before he gestured to Tightrope.

"Sergeant Tightrope here just has a few… suggestions about the watchtower."

"Oh, and what might that be, Sergeant?" Ahsoka feigned curiosity, which Rex had caught.

"Err… I-It's nothing much, Uh… Commander." He had begun speaking, rubbing the back of his neck in obvious discomfort, "I just initially thought that with no Seppies previously being recorded here, the resources for the watchtower can be put to better use for other structures."

"I see." Ahsoka crossed her arms, voicing her subtle displeasure towards Rex's snappy response, which he once again, noticed. "I think what the Captain was trying to say, is that while we value your input Sergeant, new regulations have made it mandatory for camps of any kind to have at least one main watchtower in it, for safety purposes. Hostile wildlife can be as dangerous as Seppies when unaccounted for."

Rex lifted an eyebrow at her, unaware of her own knowledge towards the new regulations while Tightrope responded, "Understood Commander. I'll pay more attention to the regs next time."

"As I'm sure you will, Sergeant." She replied softly, knowing that he had learnt his lesson before gesturing towards the Captain, "That being said, would you mind leaving the two of us? I have matters to discuss with Rex over here."

Knowing that he had been let off the hook, he took the chance that had been gracefully offered, "I'll be on my way then. Captain, Commander."

With a salute, the Sergeant promptly turned on his heels and ran to where he had last seen the ARC trooper that had put him in that position in the first place. Determined to give him a piece of his mind.

Watching the retreating trooper, Ahsoka breathed out a sigh of recollection, before turning towards the Captain.

"A bit rough around the edges don't you think, Captain?"

"What did you expect from a shiny?" Rex replied, misinterpreting her words, "He'll need to be a ton more diligent if he wants to keep up with everything."

"I wasn't talking about _him_, Rex."

Her words finally made him look at her, now realizing through her penetrating stare is the fact that she had been referring to himself.

"Look, I know I've said it before. But with how you're going about this, I think it's important that I repeat this." Ahsoka made sure that he kept his eyes on hers, "Keeping your feelings bottled up won't make it any better. It's best to let it go once in a while."

"And like I said, Commander." She was almost startled at his tone, almost urging her to back off, "I'll talk about it when I'm ready."

Ahsoka however, refused to back down. She was happy with the progress she had made the night before; but seeing as this renewed stance that the Captain had taken seems to have threatened that progress, she felt the need to push her initiative.

"That's just it, Rex. I don't think you recognized when "ready" really is." She proceeded to gesture towards the general direction of where the Sergeant had run off to, "You're stern normally. But you're never one to straight up call a trooper lazy. And yes, I know what enervated meant. Master Kenobi uses it occasionally on Master Skywalker."

"What does that have to do with anything? Regs and protocols are not something they should squander. Shiny or not." Rex retorted; stance firmly planted on his view of things.

"That is true. But it's more towards how you delivered your reprimand." She reiterated, "You were harsh, curt, and almost confrontational in a way. And this is all because of everything that's bottled in here." She placed a hand over her own heart, indicating the source of all his woes.

"Untamed emotions are a danger to anyone's psyche. An overload can cause your emotions to implode, and eventually, explode."

"Another one of those Jedi codes, Commander?" Rex quipped, still sounding sour.

"Part of it, but not entirely the source of it." Ahsoka responded gently, careful as to not further irk him. She knew that she's pushing at the moment, but she finds it imperative to get her point across, "It is part of what the code says, but it is also something that I've learned from observing all of you. We are beings with feelings, and emotion. As much as you were engineered, you grew to become men. Men with their own free-thinking minds."

Before she knew it, she already placed a hand on his shoulder. A spark of contact that she hadn't felt for a long time, and she could see that he had felt the same way as his eyes darted to her hand, "Emotion is a wonderful proof of your soul. How it coexists with your mind and fuel it when guided in the right way. When left unchecked however, it can be detrimental to not only your own wellbeing, but the wellbeing of others as well."

_As yours is affecting me_. She had wanted to add. But she knew that it might be pushing him far too much to lay that on him after all she had said.

She had waited for him to say something. Or at least signal her through any sort of change within his expression. She'd lighten up when his contemplative gaze seemed to have reached a stage of relent, and she had hoped that he will finally open up and let her through his walls, as she had been so accustomed to not having around him.

Reality, however, is often so disappointing. And this is just a testament to just how much she could forget about their surroundings when they talk face to face.

As suddenly, an officer had shown up with a datapad in his hand. Unknowing of the events revolving right in front of him.

"Captain. Forgive the interruption. But I think you should see this."

In just a split second, his eyes had flashed from the soft gaze he had held, right back to the steeled, soldier mode look that she had tried so hard to remove. And she can only hold her frustrations in since she couldn't exactly blame the officer for interrupting them.

"What's the issue, Officer." Rex had taken hold of the offered datapad, holding in a distance which Ahsoka had identified as an invitation to view it as well.

"We've run the preliminary scans as you have told us to do. Here are the results."

Taking a quick scan of the datapad, Ahsoka saw nothing that required immediate attention to. Seeing as the scans attributed most of the planet's inherent forestry and jungles. "Doesn't look like anything's out of order."

"Agreed, Commander. The Captain however, had insisted to take a look."

"That so?" Ahsoka eyed Rex suspiciously, who had his eyes stuck on the datapad before suddenly zooming into a certain point in the map and pointing it out to the officer.

"What markings are these colours indicative of?"

The officer took a closer look at the datapad, before taking it and seemingly double-checking the information, "Strange… that's the identification marks that normally signifies Rhydonium. But it's so faint that the scanners hadn't listed it as detected composite materials."

"Rhydonium? Those are common Saracor fuel material." Rex commented.

"Maybe there's an underground deposit of it? It doesn't look too defined to be on the surface." Ahsoka added, judging the scattered pinpoints of the material on the datapad.

"Not too sure, Commander. Doesn't look like a dangerous amount of it, judging by the definition." The officer had remarked.

"Either way, I don't like it." Rex stated with finality, taking the datapad, "I'll go check it out."

Another voice then interjected out of nowhere.

"Check what out?"

The three looked towards the source of the interjection and saw Fives with a curious look towards the datapad, which Rex promptly hands over to him.

"Scans had picked up faint traces of Rhydonium. Most likely underground."

"Well faint is kind of overstating it, don't you think?" Fives pointed towards the markings of the presumed material, "I can hardly see it through here, not sure that you're even gonna see any, Captain."

"Rhydonium usually means fuel cells, Fives." Rex replied, seemingly unwavering in his intentions, "And fuel cells usually means ships. I'm checking it out, regardless."

"I'm coming with." Ahsoka had added, before Rex raised his hand.

"I knew you were going to say that, but with all due respect, you're needed here, Commander." Rex firmly said, casting a look towards Fives, "As I'm sure as _vheh _wouldn't be leaving the supervision of this camp to someone who doesn't even remember yesterday's regs."

"I'm right here you know." Fives shot with mock offence.

"With all due respect, _Captain_." She had emphasis his rank in a rare attempt to subdue him through official chain of command, "I'm not so sure that you should be going at this alone."

"I'll be fine." He had worn his helmet as an indication that he was going nevertheless, "Besides, if it ends up being just a deposit, as you had suggested, then it shouldn't be more than a one-man job, right?"

_Crap. Leave it to him to use my own words against me._

He took her silence as compliance to let him go. Handing over the datapad, he turned towards the officer, "Send the data to my scanners. Tell the radar team to keep any look out for more Rhydonium. Report to me if there's any change to the material."

"Sir yes Sir." The Officer saluted before addressing Ahsoka and Fives, and promptly headed back towards the construction area.

"It shouldn't take more than a day or two." Rex uttered in the midst of gathering a backpack, some rations, and gears that he finds of use, "It'll be good distraction anyways." The last of his sentences almost inaudible, and Ahsoka would've missed it if it weren't for her heightened senses.

"Rex, I-"

"We'll have to delay our… _discussion_, till then, Commander."

Ahsoka swore at the fact that he had his helmet on. Not being able to gauge his expression caused her to lose many hidden points that she could've analysed just by looking at him. But then again, she knew that once he's on a path, it takes a while to shake him off of it, even when she knew that all he's been saying is that he wants to be left alone, which is quite frankly going against the entirety of why her Master had assigned them to this mission. Yet she knew that she couldn't exactly force him to speak out his mind, no matter how much she wanted him to do so.

All she can do is hope for his safety.

"Alright then. Be careful, Rex."

All she got in reply was a nod before he turned on his heels and promptly made his way towards the end of the clearing and straight into the jungled lands of the uncharted system.

As she kept her eyes on his disappearing back, she failed to notice the soft gaze that Fives had been giving her. Understanding how she's probably feeling, before sighing deeply to himself and uttering out. "Go."

"What?"

"Go with him." Fives repeated with calmness, "This is a good chance for you two to talk. And as much as he made you stay; you wouldn't be able to have an ounce of focus if your mind is constantly worrying about him."

At this point, she was tired of acting surprised, and just chuckled dryly, noting her obvious lack of focus and the evident source of it all. "That bad huh?"

"Can't blame ya." Fives mentioned with a resigned tone, "I'm concerned about him as well. But I meant it when I said that you're the only who can crack through his facade right now."

"What about the camp?"

"Denal can be supervisor instead." Fives declared, then gesturing towards the medical tent, "Me and Kix can handle the shinies. And you won't have to worry about regs when he's around."

Ahsoka snickered at his comment, "Always have our backs huh, Fives?"

"Tell me about it." Fives replied with mock annoyance, "At this rate, I ought to get paid just to keep doing that."

"If that's the case, how much will I get paid just to keep you boys and the General all out of trouble?" Ahsoka jokingly added.

Fives smiled at her addition, yet his answer was filled with nothing but sincerity, "With all that you've done, the Republic would need to have a big bank to pay your salary."

Ahsoka kept an appreciative grin on her features. Fives had been one of the clones that really grown to be akin to his General. And as Anakin had tried to do, she appreciated his efforts in trying to keep the situation light-hearted, despite how it had actually been feeling like in reality.

"In all seriousness though, I owe you one, Fives."

Fives nodded at her gratefulness, "Bring our Captain back and we'll be right as rain, Ahsoka."

With a smile, she gave him a two-fingered salute before making her way to camp's exit and began her way into tracking the Captain.

As her figure slowly disappears into the dense jungle, Fives then noticed that a trooper had sidled up to him. With a quick look, he was able to tell that Tightrope had been observing from afar.

"Where's the Commander off to?"

"Making sure that the Captain doesn't get himself killed." Fives casually replied.

"Oh. For such a reputable duo, they seem to clash words more often than I'm used to seeing from a Commander and a Captain." Tightrope commented.

Fives sighed at the observation, "They're the best of friends that you'll see around here, trooper. They've been through a lot together, so it's no surprise that they don't hold anything back when talking to each other."

"I've been told. Lieutenant Denal had said that if you mess with one, expect the other one to come at you with no mercy."

"Be that as it may however, it applies to their selves as well." Fives paused to reminisce on all the times that he had to intervene on their small arguments that could've amassed to something more. "If one of them has a problem that they kept to their selves, the other one would stop at nothing to help them solve their way out of it. Even it was a problem with their own person, and not others."

"Just like it is now, Sir?"

A smirk etched itself on Fives's lips, placing a hand on Tightrope's shoulder, "You learn quick, Sergeant. Better get used to it if you wanna stick around the 501st boys. There's nothing separating our good Commander and Captain. Not even the General."

"I see. I'll make sure the boys are notified." Tightrope replied, fully comprehending the ARC's words, before adding, "I do however, Sir, have a question for you."

"You do?" Fives replied with curiosity, thinking that the Sergeant had something particularly interesting in mind. "Ask away, kid."

"Oh, it's nothing much." Tightrope began, a devious smirk slowly creeping through his features, "The Lieutenant was just asking you to inform us new boys about some of the new regs that had just been released."

~Line Break~

Out in the middle of the forestry, Rex had been his pace a steady rate for a few hours. Trying to arrive at the source of the abnormal scans as quickly as he possibly can, but he now realizes why the initial reports have suggested that Selvaris can be quite a physically strenuous planet.

The very fact that the dense trees and massive spans of forest plains makes it extremely difficult to find a path that he can stick to. Many times, he had to circle around copious amounts of rock formations and ravines, which proves to have impeded his speed towards the destination.

At least, that's all that he was willing to consider as the aspects that were interrupting his effectiveness at the moment.

Not the swirling mess that his head had been conjuring for the past few days.

The fact that his head just couldn't stop thinking about _that _dream.

The fact that every time he sees her feisty and ever-optimistic features, that image of her lifeless body in his hands, constantly clouds his vision.

He grunted and almost violently shook his head, trying to snap back to focus.

"Stupid head." He had uttered to himself.

Trudging on, he kept his focus on the monotonous beeping of the scanner. Careful as to not miss anything else that the scanner might have picked up which were deemed abnormal.

Eventually, he came up to a large gorge that was opening up to a vast network of caves with a few waterfalls forming within its surrounding walls.

Had it not been for the worries of the mission and the turmoil that's perpetually churning up his very soul, he probably would have been able to appreciate the view a lot better than just a passing glance.

But somewhat to his annoyance, the view stretched for the longest of distances, as if begging for him to stop and take a moment to take it all in.

Sighing in resignation, he realized that the hotspot of the detected abnormal material is just a short distance ahead, and having the benefit of a doubt, he decided to finally succumb to the view that was just asking for his attention.

Settling on a fallen tree stump, he sat himself on a comfortable recess. Taking off his helmet and switching off the scanner just so he could fully absorb all that's being offered.

And right as the beeping from the scanner ended, he was suddenly able to scan his surroundings and admire the serenity that it he had sorely ignored for the entirely of his travel.

The chirpings of the avian inhabitants of the planet. The distanced roar of the waterfalls. The calm breeze that slowly caressed his cheeks. And just how peaceful the planet had now felt.

His mind finally settled as he took a deep breath and tried to centre his attentions to the tranquillity that the planet is gracefully presenting him with.

Slowly, he felt himself simply ease into the bearings that he has settled to and finally cast a contemplative gaze towards the view that the gorge upholds.

And a small yet soft smile slowly made its way to his lips as he felt a familiarity wash over him.

"You know…. You could've just said that you wanted to go sightseeing, Rexster." His peripheral vision marking her position as she stood right behind the tree trunk, "Not that I blame you though. It's a breath-taking view, I'd probably want to enjoy it alone."

"Probably, huh?" Rex quipped. Finally looking at her.

"Yeah." Ahsoka smirked at him, moving to the front side of the trunk, "Probably, as in enjoying it with good company wouldn't be such a bad idea either."

"Is that an idea for yourself; or more of a suggestion for others?"

"That depends." She made a gesture towards the empty space next to him, "This seat taken?"

Rex merely scoffed and gave a side nod towards the space, which she gladly took as a sign to settle down and join him.

Within seconds, her mind had travelled back to the night before. Similar circumstances, yet quite a different state of mind.

"As much as I like staring into the never-ending hyperspace tunnel. This is much less tiring to look at."

"Yeah. Can hardly focus on checking the scanner readings." Rex replied in short.

"How's that going by the way?" Ahsoka inquired, formulating a small plan, "Are we anywhere near it."

Rex nodded and took out his scanner, showing her the marked spot. "Just down the mound. We should be right on top of it then."

"Let's get going then." She rose to her feet. Bounding with the energy that he had missed, "If we can get this down in a jiffy, then we'll have more time for our _discussion_, Captain."

Unsurprised by her brute honesty, he chuckled as he stood up and gave the few one last look before he felt her hand on her shoulder once again.

"We'll come back to this view, Rex." She assured him, also gazing towards the gorge, "Would be waste to just look at it for that long, huh?"

Rex gave her faint smile before putting his helmet on, pulling up the scanner's marker on his helmet's hud.

"Shall we, Commander?"

"Lead the way, Captain."

Following his steps, Ahsoka kept a steady hand on one of her sabers, prepping for any sort of danger that might leap at them. Her mind had echoed what she had heard him say when it comes to hostile creatures. Seppies or not, they can still a good number on you.

Yet she finds herself somewhat underwhelmed as when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, she wasn't able to make up much of anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Aside from the massive trees that had been basically caging them in the jungle.

"Why are we stopping?"

"The markings in the scanner placed us right here." Rex showed her the scanner, with the visible red circle smacked in the middle of their position, "We're right on it."

"Well then…" she made a show of giving her surroundings a quick scan. Making sure that her impressions were delivered, "I'm not seeing anything dangerous surface-wise. Maybe it is underground then?"

Rex already had one blaster out of its holster. Still carefully appraising his surroundings, as if he had expected any sort of danger to have launched out of nowhere. Ahsoka however, did not want to indulge in his worries too much.

"If it's an all clear Captain, we might as well head back."

He remained rooted to his spot, still adorning the stance that she had seen countless times in the frontlines.

"Rex?"

A quick jolt and he turned to her, finally looking as if he had relented. "Yeah, looks to be an all clear."

Ahsoka scoffed at the lack of enthusiasm that had backed his words, "Sorry to disappoint Rexster. As much as trouble often finds us, I highly doubt that anything in this side of the wild space would have anything for us to worry-"

As soon as she was about to finish her sentence, she felt a slight tug right at her feet, followed by a tremor that slowly but surely grew larger and larger, until something emerged right from beneath the ground that they had stood on just mere seconds ago.

Slowly stepping back to avoid sinking into the crumbling ground, the two continued to be frozen in astonishment as a behemoth of an LR-57 combat droid tore its way out of the crevices of the planet, followed by two massive Octuparra tri-droids.

Even with his helmet on, Ahsoka could feel the exasperated look that he was giving her as he tiredly muttered, "You were saying?"

Before she got a chance to reply, the droid's red eyes suddenly blinked into activation, opening fire as soon it stabilizes itself, forcing Rex to grab her and jumped out of the way. Effectively shielding her and quickly rolling to a suitable cover behind one of the humongous trees.

Now behind cover, the two gathered their breaths as they saw the area that it had just shot slowly evaporating with smoke while the ground around it seemingly rotted away.

"Their blasters must be riddled with Rhydonium" Rex pointed out, which Ahsoka immediately took notice as well, "Everything near its blast radius, whether they get a direct hit or not, rots away from the substance."

"Better keep our distance then." She muttered, before pulling her lightsabers out, "Rhydonium's highly explosive, right?"

"Being starship fuel, I would certainly think so." Sarcasm lacing his reply, which Ashoka merely rolled her eyes at before turning her attention towards the now randomly firing droids.

"It doesn't seem like they initially targeted us. More like they're just firing at any biological substance that they detect." She observed, noticing how none of them share even a remote interest to where their position is.

"Maybe that's why the Seppie's left them." Rex commented, "Their targeting algorithm must've gone haywire."

"Nonetheless, they'll still target us if we get into their scopes." Ahsoka seemingly thought about something for a second, before looking back at the malfunctioning droids, "I got an idea."

"I never liked it when you come with up a quick idea." The Captain uttered frankly, the visions in his head slowly returning into play, "They usually meant utter recklessness."

"Shut it, Captain. You're used to it anyways." Ahsoka shot back, and then pointed to the two Octuparras, "I'll distract the two crabs. Master Skywalker's taught me a thing or two about pitting them against one another. You can handle the other tinny just fine with those two off of your back."

"That's far too much risks, Commander." Rex argued, his voice slowly turning to the concerned tone of a friend, "With all due respect to the General. If you get within even an inch of their blast radius, there's no telling what might happen to you."

"There's no other way, Rex." She countered, unaware of the worries of the man beside her, "If we don't shut them down here and now, we don't know how far it's going to keep firing those fuel induced blasters. Forget the listening post, we might risk losing the entire surface of this planet."

"There's got to be a safer way." Rex rebutted, almost desperately. Even though he knew that there is most likely no other way to deal with it in the short span of time that they have.

"If we have time, maybe yeah." Ahsoka replied firmly, bracing to go on with her plan, "But we don't. So, follow my lead."

"Ahsoka wait-" before he had finished, she already made her way up the humongous tree in a pace he definitely wouldn't be able to keep up to, "Kriffing hell!"

He tried to steel himself, but his mind had already begun the turmoil that he had so easily forgotten just tens of minutes ago. The same words and images repeating itself over and over again.

_So still… so lifeless…_

_NO!_

He mentally swore at himself. Replaying the promise that he had made in his mind.

_Not in my watch_.

Steadying his breath, he pulled both of his blasters out and began making his move towards the occupied LR-57 while he kept track of her movements on the roof of the trees above.

Right as they approached the rabid droids, Rex visibly noticed the LR-57 taking a lock on him. While the preoccupied Octuparras kept their wild spree of shooting going for a few seconds before detecting Ahsoka's presence on the trees.

Blaster fire once again raining down on both of them.

Despite being shot at himself, dodging the blast radiuses had become almost second nature as he weaved behind rocks and fallen tree trunks like he's used to in any terrain of battle. But what made his heart stop every few seconds is every shot that Ahsoka barely avoids, causing him to grimace in his helmet.

Rex finally found himself one on one with the massive combat droid, aiming his DC's right at it, "Alright clanker. Let's scrap you like the junk you are."

Careful not to aim directly at its fuel tank, Rex chose a more creative approach on dealing with the droid. Realizing the slow fire rate of all its blasters, he took advantage of it and begun peeking in out of cover and constantly shooting at its hands. Slowly but surely chipping away its armour and exposing the arm's centre structure.

Ahsoka on the other hand, is having a hard time getting the two massive crab droids to shoot at each other. Due to her size, and their perceived lack of programming accuracy, it was taking a lot more effort to even have them shoot in an accuracy that she'd deem to be remotely acceptable.

A shockwave from one of the explosions suddenly knocked her out of the air as she attempted to jump from one branch to another, sending her reeling on to the bushes below.

Staring in horror as the event unfold, Rex felt his heart drop and was about to go and help before a shot from the combat droid had forced him to stay put, he opted to comm her instead.

"Ahsoka, Ahsoka! Come in!"

The few seconds of static had almost made Rex want to charge through the rotting blaster holes around him and make sure that she's alive, before a beep came through his commlink.

"I'm fine, Rex. Just got the wind knocked out of me for a little bit."

"I told you that it was too big of a risk."

He never felt a bigger sigh of relief as he saw her bounding up to a nearby rock. He made mental note to talk about risks more often with her, before observing her as he saw her gather herself and spoke through her comms as more shots rang out.

"Those things can't shoot straight to save their parts. Which would usually be an encouraging thing." She paused for a moment as more debris scattered around her, grateful that the giant rock is holding up well enough, "We need a bigger target. Something that they can't miss."

The two stayed silent as they discerned their environment while eluding and taking cover from the blasts. And Rex slowly found himself to shot of any ideas, unable to make up anything from the bare environment that they had.

"There's nothing usable from this terrain. Unless we have something that can mow down trees." Rex relayed through his commlink, "The only thing big enough for them to shoot at are their selves."

His statement got her thinking. She began eyeing the LR-57 that still had its eyes on chasing Rex, taking in the limbs that Rex had managed to shoot off, barring it from a weaponized arm, then she proceeded to scan the nearby recesses that the ground around them had, until she found a suitable substance.

Mud.

Another idea formed in her head.

"Rex! You see that pool of mud? Three o'clock."

Rex looked at the referred position to see what she had mentioned, although not seeing the point of noticing it in the first place.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Get your droid and try to immobilize it as soon as it hits the mud."

"What's the point in that?" Rex incredulously shot back.

"Just do it!" she had given him her best Commander tone, even though their conversation minutes ago didn't mirror that in any case, "I'll handle the crabs to get to the same position. You just make sure that the tinny's covered in mud when I get there."

Seeing her jump out once again, he made a frustrated growl as he begrudgingly went out of his cover and fired off some more distraction shots that once again made the combat droid lock on to him.

"Come on then you Seppie junk. I'll treat you to a nice mud bath."

Manoeuvring his way virtually backwards through the entire distance, he cursed and grumbled multiple times as he tripped over numerous vines and roots. Eventually reaching a mound that would lead the droid straight to the mud pool.

Dodging more of the blaster fires, he lured the droid until it was on a considerably close position in the mound.

"That's it, come closer."

Right as it was about to unleash what would've been a sure fire hit on him, he rolled expertly through its legs, and before Rex had any time to complain about the pointy rocks that his back just rolled over, he gave the massive droid a firm kick to its backside, toppling it and letting it fall face first towards the mud.

Not wasting any time, Rex took multiple shots at each of its remaining limbs. Immobilizing as all that's left of the droid is its main body which he had suspect to be housing the Rhydonium that the scanners had picked up.

Before he was able to dwell on it, the sound of massive legs crashing into the nether behind him caused to make a quick turn, jumping out of the way just in time as the two giant crab droids made its way near the mud pool.

His commlink fired up right then, "Watch your step, Rex! Is the other droid in position?"

"Yeah, its covered in mud alright. What in the world are you going to use it for though?"

"For this."

Tracing a whooshing sound, he saw her figure land on the other side of the mud pool while the Octuparras advanced forward, positioning itself right on top of the mud pool.

It was all then followed by Ahsoka visibly straining as she lifted the mud-covered combat droid, or what's left of it, out of the mud trap.

"With the droid covered in mud…" Ahsoka began saying, pausing to focus more of the Force on to lifting the droid head, "I can elevate it to a high enough point where they'd detect it as biological material. And when that happens, their algorithm should force them lock on it and fire."

She felt the pull on her attempt to lift the droid head lighten as she managed to take it out of its mud trap, followed by a smirk as she had the crab droids right where she had wanted them.

Without further preamble, she began pushing the fuel-filled droid head towards an elevation that would force those droids to begin shooting at the covered head.

It was then Rex suddenly realized one thing.

She was standing rather close from where the explosion would be occurring.

_Far _too close.

"Wait, Ahsoka!"

His shouts of warning were to no avail as she was far too focused on lifting the droid and his adrenaline caused to think of only one thing.

He had to get to her.

Never had he felt his legs scramble as fast as it had been going.

Just as she saw the droid head get into position, she finally noticed his rapidly approaching figure and she was only able to mutter out.

"Rex?"

Before the droids opened fire on the droid head, Rex lunged forward with the last edge of his running stamina and practically threw her down to the ground as the blaster bolt made contact with the fuel tank, causing a barrage of explosions as he covered her head and both of them were sent reeling through meters and meters of dense forest shrubberies.

A good ten seconds of rolling finally came to halt, which only happened with them finally hitting enough tree trunks for the ragdoll to stop.

The jungle's ambience slowly retaking its rightful place as the simmering noise of the explosion died down, and all that interrupted the natural ambiance was the sound of their hard breathing.

Until Rex took his hand off from covering her lekku, then asking with his usual gruff voice, "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah." She timidly replied, her lekku darkening as she now registered just how tucked into his chest she had been. Almost not wanting to move from her position, "How about you?"

"I'll live…" he grunted, his open arms a sign for her to stand up, which she promptly did while pulling him alongside her.

The two stood in silence. Gathering their thoughts. And to Ahsoka's surprise, Rex had spoken first, but not in a tone that she had expected.

"That was way too _close_ for comfort, Commander."

His tone had a lot of aspects mixed into it. She couldn't exactly decipher them, but she can tell from the get-go that it had really pointed to one painfully obvious thing.

He wasn't happy.

Normally, all these remarks, as she recalled, would've been made in a light-hearted, almost teasing manner. But his tone had held nothing but concern, worry, and most of all, anger. Scarily similar to how her own Master's tone would have sounded like if he were to be the reprimanding her.

But with the sudden return of the adrenaline that she had during their short skirmish, she found herself challenging him instead of backing down.

"We've each had closer calls than _that_, Captain."

"Have we now? Care to remind me?" Rex shot back as he sharply pulled off his helmet, his tone audibly rising.

"Let's see here…" Ahsoka feigned her attempts of recollection; her frustrations with him threatening to boil over, "Chasing after a renowned Jedi-killing bounty hunter on your own?"

"That has no relevancy with our situation does it?" he himself now finding his worries boiling all over, "And even it does, how does that compare with you taking on the _kriffin _supreme commander of the droid army, who has killed far more Jedi than some big-shot bounty hunter, all on your own, hmm?"

"May I remind you that you got shot square in the chest by his commando droids?" the recollection of his wearing his armour that had a giant hole in the middle sent shivers down her spine, but she kept her resolute stance in challenging him.

"And may I remind you that you dropped an entire _fragging _droid factory on yourself?"

"I was in an armoured super-tank." She nonchalantly replied, knowing that he made a good point, but yet again, too stubborn to see his argument, "That and Master Skywalker was able to find me and Bariss pretty quickly."

"Still doesn't change the fact that you almost died running out of air!"

Ahsoka could have sworn that he had heard desperation and weariness lacing his tone. But she had her own fair share of that sentiment to let out.

"Two inches, Rex!" She shouted out. Surprised at how desperate her voice had also suddenly become. "Two inches and you were a goner, Rex!"

"Yet here I am." He echoed out, arms gesturing to himself, once again challenging her point, "And I didn't die."

"Ah yes and how mighty you are, Rex." She almost spat back at him, then she went on to point at herself, "You're talking as if _I_ died on you!"

Suddenly, he had grabbed both her shoulder. Gripping them as if his life depended on it, and she found herself stunned by the sudden power that his gaze now held.

"YOU DID!"

"…"

All the fight that was in her just zapped out of existence in an instance.

Confusion now taking its place.

She couldn't even get another word in before he continued speaking.

"You died, Ahsoka…" his grip loosening ever so-slightly, his voice uncharacteristically watery. "You died; I wasn't there. And I can't help but be terrified at the fact that even if I was, there would've been nothing that I could've done to save you."

She would normally call him out on such an outrageous statement, but the sincerity and the sorrow that his expressions had held caused her to think otherwise.

"Rex, what are you talking-"

Her brain had suddenly put together all the pieces before she had finished her sentence.

Oh.

_Oh._

He knew.

"Oh…" was all she was initially able to utter out, unable to look him in the eyes. "Mortis, huh?"

"Yes, Ahsoka…" he repeated, weariness now fully enveloping his tone, "Mortis."

Painful silence intruded the atmosphere as he let go of his grip on her shoulder, practically slumped down into a seating position on the tree trunk that had stopped their ragdoll, while Ahsoka remained standing and idly held her arm in understanding.

"Anakin?"

"Overheard him and General Kenobi."

"Ah."

Ahsoka's mind immediately shot back to the moment of anxiety that she had felt from the Captain when she was still out in the camps, now understanding that the revelation must have been the source of his sudden unease.

"So, that must've been what unsettled you when I felt your anxiety through the Force?"

Rex jerked back slightly at her statement but remained seated as she basically confirmed what he had merely thought as his mind playing tricks on him.

"So that _was_ you…"

"Guilty as charged." She softly muttered, gaze apprehensive as she took a seat next to him, "It honestly surprised me. I felt such great emotion through the Force, I thought it was Anakin."

She grabbed his hand, softly squeezing it to provide whatever comfort that she could provide.

"Lo and behold, it had been my great Captain in a rare moment of distress."

He released a shaky breath, as if he was brought back to the moment where he had felt that rising negativity.

"I couldn't get it out of my head, kid." He rested his forehead in his hands, not having the energy to go through the visions, "I kept seeing you the way the General had described you. Still, and lifeless. It haunted me."

It had pained her to see him like this. Her Captain that had endured so many loses. Her Captain that had carried many of her burdens as his own. Her Captain who had always been there for her. And now, she had contributed to his pain.

"I-Im sorry, Ahsoka."

Her eyes widened in confusion, unsure of why he had begun apologizing. "Whatever for, Rex?"

"I shouldn't have intruded like that. The business you and the General go through are strictly personal…"

"Rex, that's not true." Keeping the grip on his hand, she went down on one knee in front of him and made sure to have eye contact with his eyes that were full of uncertainty, "You deserved to know. You're one of the most important people in my life. Hell, I would've been upset had you'd be the one to hide something like that from me. It's just…"

He patiently waited for her continuation, before she took a deep breath and carried on.

"I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure how you would've felt about it… and the fact that I wasn't even sure about how I had felt about it."

She truly hadn't known how to feel about it. When Anakin and Obi-Wan had explained the events that had occurred, she didn't really believe it. It was only when Anakin had become much more overprotective than he had been before, did she realize that the occurrence of it all had been true.

She had died due to the actions of the Son.

The daughter's last act as the Force embodiment of the Light side had been to resurrect her.

All that would have been enough to spin the heads of your average Jedi Knights, as it had certainly taken Anakin's for a spin.

And there she was, a Padawan, caught in the midst of it.

"I should've been there."

Ahsoka's gaze shot up to him in an instant, "Wait, what?"

"I should've been there…" Rex reiterated, tone full of regret, "I should've helped. Warned you… something!"

"Rex!" she caressed his cheeks, feeling his growing distress, "It's okay… you were right where you needed to be. I can't help but think of how terrible it would have been for you had you been there."

"I don't care about that!" he suddenly growled, stuck in an imbalance of jerking away from her touch and leaning into it, "I should've helped! You out of all the people in this horrid galaxy is the last person to deserve such fate."

"That's nice of you to say Rex but-"

"We lost you. _I _lost you!"

"Rex, no you-"

"I should've helped!"

"Rex, please listen-"

"You wouldn't have died!"

"Rex, for crying- come here!"

Stopping him of his rant, she quickly looped her arms around his neck and tucked his head into the crook of her neck. Holding him, making sure that he can feel her.

"I'm here, Rex. You didn't lose anyone. I'm alive, and I'm right here."

She tightened her embrace as she still felt the hesitancy in both his stance and his aura within the Force. She knows that this is him trying to scrape at what had remained from his tight-sealed walls. Yet as true as that is, this is also him trying to make room for her comprehension within him; his trust in her.

_This _is Rex and Ahsoka.

Finally, just when she thought that she'd almost have to implore him even further; he tightened his grip ever so softly yet surely around her. Curling his hands around her waist; pulling her in. Answering in kind, she started caressing his head, providing him with that constant assurance of her presence whilst she boosted it with a wave of comfort through the Force.

He whispers out in a volume that she had never heard the Captain spoke in before, further showcasing to her just how vulnerable he is. Showing just how much of his mind he was willing to expose to her.

"You're here."

"Yeah, Rex. I'm here.

"You're fine."

"And I'm fine." She nuzzled the side of his head, "You didn't fail anyone. You didn't lose anyone. All I want is for you to open up again Rex. As you have before."

Another shaky breath went out of Rex; this time, with a sense of acceptance to it.

His embrace had tightened once again, and she replied in kind, wanting to convey her message as tight and reassuring as possible.

"I missed you, Littl'un"

Ahsoka felt her own watery chuckle coming through at the sound of her nickname. One that he hadn't used for a long time.

"I missed you too, Rexster."

The two settled in their embrace for a while. Rex relishing the warmth that she had ever so constantly provided, whilst she does the same. Neither willing to be the first to part, and neither even thinking about it.

Eventually, Rex murmured; still nuzzled in the crook of her neck.

"Tell me all about it?"

"Yeah." Ahsoka replied, pulling her head back to look her gaze with his, "Figured that it's time. But you better buckle up though, there's quite a lot to unpack."

Rex had a small spark in his eyes that she hadn't noticed before. It was then he reached around her to press his commlink, placing the hand that held it near his face while the other settled back at her waist.

"Denal? Do you copy?"

The static-laden voice on the other end sounded out, "Loud and clear, Captain. Scanners showed a sudden spike in Rhydonium earlier. Seeing as it's gone, guess you and the Commander took care of it?"

"Yeah, looks like an old Seppie experiment went haywire." The Captain replied, sparing a smirk to the amused Commander. "Me and Commander Tano got it under control. But we might survey the rest of the area just in case."

"Eh, you're the boss." Denal answered, "You're going to set camp elsewhere?"

"Seems like it; shouldn't take long though. We'll be back in the next rotation. In the meantime, you're taking point."

"Roger that, brother. You and the Commander stay safe out there."

"Will do, Lieutenant." Rex ended the conversation while still holding the smirk he had from earlier, "Well, Commander. We got all day."

Ahsoka laughed at his remark. Leaning her head on his shoulder, grateful that he's willing to prep her emotions with humour.

"Alright Rexster." She settled back into the empty space beside him, hand still on his. "You better keep up with what I'm about to tell you. Cause it's a heck of a long story."

And tell a long story she did. Without neither realizing it, the day quickly turned into night. All the while, Rex was bombarded with revelations after revelations. Most of which he was barely able to grasp on, seeing as he barely even understood the Force in itself. And all her story was revolving around are the very beings that were the literal embodiment of each sides of the Force. It didn't help with the fact that these ethereal beings seemed to really enjoy the ominous shroud that they have on their selves, while also having ridiculous names for each other.

But his heart clenched when she arrived at the moment where she had experienced her "death" and the actions that the Son had subjected her to. The utter stupefaction that she had on her features while her tone was constantly hesitant, he couldn't really imagine how it would feel like to talk about your own demise.

"It was weird Rex. Obviously, it wasn't me controlling my body; but it was as if I was both present and absent at the same time."

"Did you see everything that happened?" Rex inquired, careful as to not ask the wrong questions that might cause unpleasant memories to arise. "As in, we're you physically aware of what you were doing?"

"No. Not one bit." She replied with mirth, "I lost all consciousness when the Son put me under. And Skyguy gave me hug when I came to. Apparently, I spent the last minutes beforehand fighting them, and you know… _dead_."

"A hug eh? You must've put up quite a fight." Rex chose to focus on the former part of her sentence much more than the latter. Hoping to not feel so morose in such a short time.

"Despite the situation, I'd like to think so." Ahsoka mused, creating a hypothetical situation in her mind where she had duelled the two Jedis. "I didn't spend the last three years neck-deep in training just to be a pushover."

"You're no pushover, I can attest to that." Rex replied with his usual honesty.

"Well, you know how to make a girl feel appreciated, Rex." Ahsoka gave him another smile, "But seeing as I was probably unbalanced by the dark side. I don't think I would've been any trouble for my own Master and his own, much more experienced Master."

Rex nodded at her justification. He does realize; and in no ways of speaking lightly about her own abilities, that the two Generals still possess a higher level of mastery in their respective craft. Especially with the fact that Ahsoka had always complained about the difficulties of dealing with the older General's particular form of lightsaber usage, adding the Skywalker's sheer capabilities with the laser sword would just make things triple the hardship in dealing with.

"Then, what happened after? Seems like the worst of it had ended." he urged on, not wanting to dwell on the grim matter.

"It somewhat was for me, I guess." She reflected, before contemplatively placing a hand on her chin. "Well, not really. Master Kenobi then made me try and figure out what was wrong with the ship, only to have me disable it as soon as I had finished reassembling it."

"Must've been for a good reason."

"That it is." Ahsoka paused, seemingly shuddering at the memory she was trudging through, "We had to prevent a wayward Anakin from leaving the world with the Son."

Not wanting to jump into conclusions, he had to ask, "Wayward as in…"

"As in a Count Dooku kind of wayward, Rex."

"Oh…"

Knowing the history that the Count has with the Jedi Order; he knew just how much of a respected member he was. A recognized duelist; probably the best in the galaxy and had his General's missing limb to prove it. Yet not long after he retired from being a Jedi, he joined forces with the Separatist and branded himself as a Sith.

A position he can't ever imagine Anakin Skywalker to be in.

"It looks like you're missing a big piece of what happened there." He commented, pointing out the obvious jump that she had made from simply fixing a starship into her own Master literally going off the rails.

"Because looking back, that's still the one part that we haven't really been able to understand." She admitted, knowing that it was a gaping hole in what had really been a pretty concrete retelling, "When Master Kenobi asked about it, Anakin had no memory of it ever happening. Only when he woken up did the Father told him that the Son had broken the laws of time or something."

"For a bunch of all-knowing beings, they sure do enjoy being cryptic." Rex chided, thinking off how frustrated he would've been to be dealing with beings of such lack of forthrightness.

"Oh, you had no idea." She chuckled, Rex relieved that more of her playful self is slowly thawing out, "Had you been there you'd probably either shoot him in the head or shoot yours instead.

"Well, with these two…" he gestured to his dual blasters, holding them up for emphasis, "I can do both at the same time."

Ahsoka wholeheartedly laughed at the gesture. Rex smiling before holstering them back together as Ahsoka wiped a few stray tears off of her eyelids.

"What if I told you that he basically did the same thing to the Son?"

"With a blaster?" he quipped with a smidge of confusion.

"He probably would've if there was one around." She replied, her sombre tone slightly returning, "But he settled with a mystical dagger that was designed to kill beings of their capabilities."

Rex tried to input a dagger into being used in the situation that he had thought about, "How would someone simultaneously stab themselves and another?"

"Think of it this way," Ahsoka began, "The Son has powers that are connected to the Father. If the Father were to die, the Son would be weakened significantly up to a point where a lightsaber; which he had proved to be impervious to beforehand, would be enough to kill him."

"So, this Father being… stabbed himself?"

"Yep. Then Anakin followed through with a stab of his own." Ahsoka's brow furrowed in hindsight, "Although it was probably redundant at that point. He was going to die sooner or later, and he was visibly weakened from what I ended up seeing."

"The General does like to have the last word every now and then."

"He sure does…" Ashoka then sighed, tracing the finally links of the story, "And then everything crumbled. The world seemingly fades away, the giant crystal on top of the monastery crashed down and we were blinded once again. We only woke up when your transmission finally went through."

"Gotta say, it was amusing to see the General passed out like that." Rex mused, a small grin showing up on his face, "He's lucky that I was the only trooper on the holo-table, or he wouldn't have made it pass the day without the men cracking jokes about it."

"Then it's a good thing that he's all you were able to see." She replied, nudging his elbow ever so slightly, "Or you would've seen Master Kenobi and yours truly in the same state."

"Seeing General Kenobi that way would be a first. _You _however…" he nudged at her shoulders, which she playfully parried with a chortle, "That wouldn't be the first time I caught you napping around, Commander."

"That so, Captain?" she challenged, "Pray tell, remind me of such occurrences if you will."

"Last night in the observation deck would be a pretty close guess."

"Technically; I was supposed to be asleep."

"Oh of course. In a bunk that is." Rex remarked, pointing to his back. "Not on some place potentially harmful for your physical wellbeing. Had Kix seen you like that, he would've marched you straight into a medbay."

Ahsoka scoffed at his statement, "And you would've let him, wouldn't you?"

"When it comes to the health of anyone in the battalion, he outranks everyone." Rex raised both of his hands in mock surrender, "I would've stood no chance."

"You definitely would've." She said with a chuckle, once again settling her head on his shoulders. Her hands playing around with one of his.

His previous words echoing the events of the night before, she couldn't help but be glad at the change that she had managed to break through in order to bring the man she missed so dearly back to his normal self.

"Hey, Rex?" she uttered softly. Tilting her head ever so slightly to keep her gaze on her features.

"Yeah?" he followed suit with his own tilting. Taking in the brightness that had returned to her calm azure orbs.

"Good talk."

She affectionately caressed his chin, with him leaning his forehead on hers once again.

"Good talk, Littl'un."

"Although next time, I'd rather not have to wait many weeks and a lecture from Fives to even get a squeak out of you."

Rex chuckled, "Fives put you up to this?"

"Not exactly…" she murmured, head back fully on his shoulder, "He was emphasizing the notion that I'm the only that can get you to speak your mind."

"Well…" Rex followed through with admission, "He has quite a point there."

Ahsoka smiled at his admission. Glad at the fact that he's once again, willing to be frank with her.

The pair then sighed in satisfaction. Once again letting their surroundings encompass the atmosphere as the wind breezes through and the moon shone brightly into the night life of Selvaris. Fives's words had been travelling through Ahsoka's mind, it's significance really jutting out in the moment.

_So, this is what Fives had meant._

Her thoughts then suddenly brought out a devious plan for the ARC trooper.

"By the way, I got a little idea on something we can do to our favourite ARC."

"Hmm?" Rex quipped with an amused eyebrow, "If you're referring to Fives, I'd hardly label him as a strong favourite. We need Echo to keep him in line."

"Huh, fair enough." She agreed, settling on a humorous compromise, "Okay then, a half of our favourite ARCs"

Rex shrugged with acceptance, now paying attention to her previous notion, "What'd you have in mind?"

Ahsoka's mischievous smile pops out, Rex grateful that he's not the target of whatever deed that she has in mind.

"Just follow my lead."

* * *

The heat of the morning sun blared through the camp, the commotion of the listening post construction ringing out against the natural ambiance of Selvaris's forestry.

But none of the chaos of clashing atmosphere managed to break through Fives anxiousness as he awaited the return of his two commanding officers. Crossing his heart that she had been able to work around the walls that the Captain had so adamantly put up in the recent weeks.

"Waiting for those two, Sir?"

Fives had noticed that the shiny Sergeant had been observing him, but he let it slide seeing as the trooper had been sharp enough to notice the conflict around the two commanding officers.

"Yeah… I can only hope that she broke through, kid."

"Well you said they were good friends, Sir." Tightrope recapped, "Surely one of them would listen to the other eventually."

"Let's hope for that." Fives then noticed movement on the edge of the forest line, "Because we're going to find out soon."

Tightrope immediately traced Fives's line of vision, finally laying eyes on the Captain and Commander, and it was then he realized that the two looked like they are still heavily engaged in a rather expressionistic argument. The Togrutan visibly frustrated while the Captain grew annoyed as their bickering continued.

Sparing a quick look towards the ARC beside him, Tightrope noticed his previously hopeful look vanished and his posture deflating as he watched the argument in front of him continue.

The voices of the arguing duo then became audible.

"Rex! Like I said, it wouldn't be this complicated if you would just talk!"

They entered the camp as Fives and Tightrope idly stood by while they came to a halt a few steps in front of them.

"And who's to say that I'd be willing to waste my time talking? To my commander no less!"

"I don't know. Fives seems to think so." The Commander replied, shooting a nasty look towards the dumbfounded clone, who froze even more when the Captain turned his gaze him and marched right up to his face.

"That's so huh, Fives?"

"R-Rex, I was- er… -just trying to-"

"Save it!" Rex almost shouted at him and roughly pushed the datapad he's holding to Fives's chest, "The General's waiting for an update. Good thing the report was up to speed or you wouldn't be comfortably standing here, Fives."

Not wanting to look at the ARC trooper, Tightrope averted his vision towards the Commander, wanting to appraise her reaction yet only finding her mostly turned away from the debacle.

But his eyes caught something on the edge of her features, and he could've sworn that her lips just had the faintest of quivers.

Leading him to believe that not everything is as it seems.

The Captain's voice rang through his distracted mind once again.

"Be ready to relay the General's feedback to the construction team. I don't want anything to be as dragged as it already is, got it?"

"Y-Yes Sir." Fives weakly replied, not daring to look his Captain in the eyes.

"Good." And with a gruff acknowledgement, Rex then promptly made his way towards the command tent, with Tightrope presuming that the Captain wants to get to updating the General as swiftly as possible.

As Rex slowly disappears into the camp, Fives sighed in resignation and was about to address his Commander before she put her hand up.

"Not a word from you, Fives." She harshly shot out, still visibly seething from whatever argument she had with the Captain, "Next time, you're on your own when it comes to dealing with his stubborn hind!"

Fives looked like he was about to retort, before being shut down by a short yet venomous glare from the Togrutan, while Tightrope couldn't help but feel sorry for his brother.

Because for all the softness that the Commander held, she sure knows how to make a man feel small.

"That's what I thought." She sternly remarked, and in a volume that was barely audible, yet was just loud enough for the two to catch, she uttered, "Only hope, my foot…"

She then promptly made her way past them and disappeared into the camp herself. After making sure that she's no longer within sight, Tightrope placed a hand on his shaken brother's shoulder.

"You alright, brother?"

A shaky sighed when out of him, "Well that was depressing." Fives then turned his gaze to the direction that the two had disappeared towards, "Looks like I have a lot more in my plate than I thought, kid. I'd better get going, else the Captain's going to have my _sheb _by mess."

Tightrope could only nod, not wanting to add up to the pressure that Fives now held.

"Oh, and can you head to command and check on the resource report." Fives added with a dull tone to his voice. "I'd rather not have the Captain take a look at it and find any discrepancies."

"Will do, Sir." Tightrope shortly replied, and promptly made his way towards the command tent, all while keeping a peripheral vision on the dispirited ARC.

_Poor vod._

He then steeled himself as he approached the tent, knowing that Captain Rex in a foul mood isn't someone you can just be around all willy-nilly.

Brushing past the tent overhangs, he went in and found himself surprised when the Captain is standing in front of the holotable with a hologram of Anakin Skywalker being displayed.

All while his Commander stood jovially next to the Captain.

His presence unnoticed, the conversation between the three went on as if he wasn't even in the room.

"So, I take it that everything is going as planned?"

"All on schedule, General." Rex replied firmly, with the harsh tone that he had used just mere minutes noticeably missing from his speech. "We discovered an old Seppie experiment. It caught us by surprise, but we neutralized it with ease."

"You should see this place, Master." Ahsoka's much more relaxed tone now sounding out, nudging the Captain in the process, "Rexster and I got some pretty impressive scenery to admire. It'll be a shame if you don't get to at least see it once."

"Have to agree, General." Rex supported with a reserved grin, "Wouldn't want to miss it if I can't help it."

"Really? Then maybe I'd join in the next maintenance supervision team." Anakin replied with amusement, "If there's ever a need to check on the listening post that is."

"I'm sure we'd find time regardless." Ahsoka said, her face lighting up as a thought crossed her mind, "We can take the Twilight! Artoo would have a fun time here as well."

"We'll see about that." Anakin smiled at his Padawan, pleased at the visible return of her bounding energy and the Captain's subtle light-hearted quips. A voice then sounded from his side of the communicator, urging him to reply, "I'll be there! Well Snips. The Senator's transport's about to leave, I wouldn't want to be left behind."

"Alright Skyguy. Tell Padme I said hello!"

Anakin chuckled at her remark, "Will do. Oh, and Rex," he gestured to the Captain who snapped at attention, only to relax as his General said, "Good to have you back."

Rex smiled appreciatively, knowing full well what he meant.

"Good to be back, General. Don't have too much fun with the Senator."

Ahsoka guffawed at Anakin's astounded reaction, leaning into Rex as he tried his best to not overly shake in laughter while Anakin merely remarked with mock annoyance, a grin visible on his lips, "I regret having you two meet each other. Skywalker, out."

As the hologram of the Jedi Knight fades away, Ahsoka wiped her tears of amusement while muttering in between breaths, "Good one Rexster."

Tightrope kept his wits about as a full smile plastered itself on the Captain's features, one that he noticed to be full of warmth and just genuine comfort, all while balancing the weight of the Commander on his shoulder.

It was at that moment did Tightrope realized that this is what Denal had been referring to when describing the two friends.

Two people who are simply their selves when being around each other. Two people who relish at the comfort that they provided with one another, especially during a time where moral support seems to be the very factor that continuously push them to fight for the benefit of the future.

A relationship that goes beyond just a Captain and Commander.

A bond between two people who knew each other to the core. The best of friends, and maybe something just slightly beyond that, the Sergeant couldn't tell at the moment.

Not wanting to intrude roughly, he took a step back out and made his move in, making it look like he just entered the tent. The voice of the moving tent entrance brought the two's attention to him. Ahsoka barely keeping herself together as he addressed the two of them, "Commander, Captain."

"Sergeant." Rex was the one to reply, keeping his amused stare at Ahsoka while she was still attempting to gather herself, "Something you need, vod?"

Tightrope replied with simplicity, "ARC trooper Fives just wanted to make sure that the reports are up to date, Captain. He said he'd rather not lose his _shebs _by mess."

"Oh yeah, Fives." Ahsoka said with a chuckle, "Poor guy, he probably thinks he destroyed any chances of us talking huh?"

"Consider this his punishment for never catching up with the regs." Rex replied with a wry smile, earning a small smack on the shoulder.

"Don't be like that Rex old boy." She shot back a grin, "He's just trying to help."

A heartbeat passed as they locked gaze with each other, before Ahsoka averted hers to the Sergeant, "Well then, we better make sure that our precious ARC trooper isn't drowning himself in the pool of sorrows. Don't we, Captain?"

"Lead the way, Commander."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELP! I wouldn't blame you if you didn't get all the way down here :P It's a crap ton of a long thing to read, so I'd even take it slowly xD
> 
> Anywho, any feedback will always be appreciated :D I'm always up for any sort of Rexsoka, and I have a few more in store for both this, some one-shots, and my other stories that I've been working on. I just no longer have a virtually viable schedule to follow through when it comes to writing :P I'd rip my own hair out if I was a reader of my own fics.
> 
> Anyways, thanks once again for reading! It means a lot to me that there are people who are anticipating for my fics :D makes writing them all the more fun :)


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